130 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



a stranger. The best way is to bring in the new coct in the summer, 

 either as a chick, or late in the year in the moulting season, when he 

 will not take too much notice of the hens. As a general rule it would 

 be well to have one a yearling and the other a year older. In the third 

 year, the cock, who then becomes lazy and excessively jealous, should 

 be killed. 



In selecting eggs for hatching, care should betaken that they are not 

 at the utmost more than a month old, but their condition for hatching 

 will greatly depend upon the temperature of the weather : vitality con- 

 tinues longest when the weather is cool. 



It has been asserted that the future sex of the bird is indicated by 

 the shape of the egg; the round producing the female, and the oblong 

 the male. But this is contradicted, and, we believe, with sufficient rea- 

 son, and it is impossible not only to foretell the sex, but even to ascertain 

 whether the egg be fecundated. This however is certain, that if the 

 air-bag (at the obtuse end), which has been mistaken for the germ, and 

 the purpose of which is to oxygenate the blood of the chick, be per- 

 forated even in the least conceivable degree, the generating power is 

 lost altogether. Those eggs only which have been fecundated by the 

 male are possessed of the vital principle. The number of eggs for a hen 

 should not exceed sixteen, as she cannot impart the necessary warmth 

 to more. It is by no means uncommon with experienced breeders to 

 place two hens on the same day on their respective eggs, and then on the 

 twenty-first day when the broods are out, to give the maternal charge 

 of both to one of the hens, removing the other to another set of eggs, 

 which, if she be a steady setter, she will hatch as in the first instance. 

 This, however, must be deemed a cruelty, though some hens would in- 

 stinctively continue to sit until death. They would, however, become 

 so attenuated by continued sitting, as to lose the power of communicat- 

 ing to the eggs the necessary degree of warmth. The practice of the 

 Surry breeders is to feed the hen on oats while sitting, as less stimu- 

 lating than barley, which they give to the laying hens on account of 

 this very quality. 



CAPONIZIIVG. — The making of capons, that is, emasculating the males, 

 is practiced a little in some of the English counties, and very much in 

 France, where the females are also rendered incapable of breeding, and 

 termed in their unsexed condition poulardes, in order to give them the 

 tendency to fatten. An incision is made near the parts, and through 

 this the finger is introduced to take hold of and bring away the genitals, 

 but so carefully as not to injure the intestines : the wound is then stitched 

 up and rubbed with oil or grease ; and the comb (which appears to be 

 an unnecessary and gratuitous pain and insult to the sufferer) is often 

 cut-ofif. The females are treated much in the same way, when they do 

 not promise well for laying, or when they have ceased to be fertile ; they 

 are deprived of the ovarium. The subsequent treatment is similar to 

 that in the former case. Care is taken to give them good food for three 

 or four days, and during that time to keep them in a place of moderate 

 temperature, to avoid the danger of gangrene, which, considering the 

 time of the year — midsummer, when the operation is usually performed 

 : — is a very probable consequence. Pullets of the largest breed are 



