NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 55 



hatched blind, naked and helpless, depen- 

 dent on the nest for shelter and their 

 parents for food, having already absorbed 

 into their system all the nourishment con- 

 tained in the egg, and those that are born 

 with open eyes, feathered bodies, active 

 limbs, a wallet of food stored from the 

 egg against immediate needs, and a strong 

 desire to set about exploring the corner 

 of the earth that they have inherited 

 without further loss of time. 



To the latter class — who naturally 

 require a longer period of incubation to 

 reach the higher stage of development to 

 which they attain before leaving the egg 

 — belong the pheasants. The hen takes 

 a day or so, longer than the partridge or 

 the barn-door fowl to bring her eggs to 

 hatching ; she has been sittmg three weeks 

 before the chick thrusts its beak through 

 the skin lining the inside of the egg, and 

 begins to breathe the air contained in the 

 space between this lining and the shell, 

 the business of respiration having up to 

 this point been carried on by a sort of bag 



