Feeding, Breeding, and Management. 41 



day by day, and to increase, rather tliau diminish. Many hens are 

 apt to lose the power of their limbs when about to lay, and such 

 mnst be carefully looked after. Others do so only at the beg-inning of 

 the breeding season, when the weather proves unusually cold. Although 

 there is no way of knowing an q^^ to be such as will produce a 

 healthy young one, it may be told with almost certainty that eggs of 

 a certain appearance wiU come to no good. Those that, instead of 

 being smooth when laid, are very rough or of a honey-combed 

 appearance towards one end, are generally bad, and though they contain 

 the germs of a living squab it will generally die in the shell. Very 

 small eggs have rarely a yolk in them, and very large ones have generally 

 a double yolk. The latter almost invariably die during incubation, 

 though instances have been known of two healthy young ones being 

 hatched and reared from them. Good eggs have a smooth appearance, 

 and a few hours after being laid, a round air spot, usually at one 

 end of them, will be observed on holding them up to the light. The 

 hen lays her second egg forty-five hours after the first, or very nearly at 

 two o'clock on the third day, and this is an almost invariable rule when 

 all goes well. The first egg being replaced in the nest, incubation then 

 commences, and in seventeen complete days, more or less, according to 

 the weather, breed, and closeness of sitting, the young are hatched. 



There is a great difference in the breeding powers of hen pigeons, 

 and those that lay oftenest during their first season without any forcing, 

 generally breed for more seasons than such as lay only twice or thrice 

 in their first season. When a hen lays single eggs to a nest it ia 

 generally a sign that her procreative powers are drawing to a close, or 

 that she is being unnaturally forced. 



When the eggs have been sat on for three full days, it may be deter- 

 mined almost surely whether they are fertile or not. When held against 

 a strong light, the heart and blood vessels branching from it, of the 

 embryo squab will be clearly seen in a good egg. When no such ap- 

 pearance ia visible, the eg^ is bad, or, as happens occasionally, it has not 

 been sat on closely, if fertile ; but in such a case, another day should 

 determine whether it be good or bad. In a week a good egg is quite 

 opaque when held against the light, and becomes of a blue colour. 



Should a newly laid egg get chipped by the claw of the old bird, 

 or by other accident, so long as the skin below the shell be not 



