212 CLASS AVES. 



from' three to eight on each side. Each of these ovens has two 

 stories. The upper compartment has a door opening on the 

 corridor ; a hole in its vaulted roof, which is closed or opened 

 at pleasure ; lateral windows, which are never shut, and 

 which communicate with the upper compartments of the 

 neighbouring ovens ; a circular aperture in the centre of its 

 floor, by which one may descend into the lower compartment, 

 and around which is drawn a sort of trench destined to receive 

 and contain live fuel, the heat of which gives out through 

 the aperture just mentioned. The lower compartment, like 

 the upper, has a door which opens on the gallery, and on the 

 ground of this compartment the eggs are placed. 



In front of -the principal building are several apartments, 

 one of which, smaller than the rest, serves as a furnace to 

 convert the pieces of dung into a sort of charcoal, and thus 

 prevent them from spreading a smoke when they are put into 

 the hatching-ovens, which would be injurious to the eggs. 

 Another apartment is destined to receive the chickens when 

 they are disclosed. In a third, the eggs are deposited which 

 are intended to be put in the ovens. In a fourth, the people 

 lodge who are charged with the direction of all these opera- 

 tions. 



All these buildings are invariably on a level with the ground, 

 and no part of them below it. They are generally backed 

 against those little hillocks, so frequent in Egypt, which are 

 found near towns and villages, of earth, rubbish, &c., which 

 the people are thus obliged to heap up ; for if spread abroad, 

 they would make the soil unequal, and render irrigation diffi- 

 cult, and in many cases impossible. 



Towards the middle of January these ovens are visited 

 and repaired ; and as they are common, and each of them 

 serves a department of fifteen or twenty villages, the inha- 

 bitants are then advertised that they may bring their eggs 

 there. 



