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good nest of soft straw, well rubbed witb the hand, for they seldom make a proper 

 one themselves. Barley straw is best for this purpose, but of whatever you make 

 it, let it be a good sound tight nest, for if it is loose and careless the eggs will get 

 under the straw, the birds lose them, forsake the nest, and the eggs are not 

 hatched, owing to a little carelessness. The hen mostly lays two eggs, missing 

 one day between the first and second; after having laid her first egg, which is 

 always between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, she and the cock alternately 

 stand over it, to protect it from the intrusion of other birds ; the second is laid, 

 usually, at one o'clock, or soon after, on the third day, when they commence 

 incubation in the following manner : — the cock sits from between nine and ten in 

 the morning till four or five o'clock in the afternoon, when the hen sits till the 

 following morning, and so alternately till the seventeenth day from the laying the 

 last egg, when the incubation is complete, and the eggs will be chipped, and in 

 general hatched in the course of that day, if they hatch at all, and this regularity 

 and alternate relief is maintained during the feeding as well as the sitting. 



I used, formerly, when the first egg was laid between five and six o'clock in the 

 afternoon to take it away and put it into a pill box, lined with wadding, to prevent 

 its breaking, and substitute a bone egg, for the birds to stand over, or sit upon, 

 and on the third day, when the hen would lay her second egg, between one and 

 two o'clock ; prior to this, on the same morning, restore the first egg about nine 

 o'clock, so that it might acquire the same warmth of the last egg, and both 

 hatched together. I know I was a great gainer by this method, but having many 

 birds, it was too troublesome; but if you have a few birds and time on your hands, 

 it will reward you for your trouble. 



OF HATCHING. 



The Fancier should be very particular, and be certain of the day of hatching. 

 The way I do is to keep a book on purpose, and in looking at the nest pans, where 

 I expect them to lay after six o'clock in the evening; if an egg is laid, I put in 

 the book the number of the penn to which the birds belong the day the first egg is 

 laid ; suppose the first egg on the first of the month, the second egg on the third, 

 then add seventeen days for sitting from the last egg which is laid on the third, 

 making it the twentieth ; and while you are going your round to look after fresh 

 laid eggs, look to those eggs that are to hatch that day, for be assured that in nine 

 cases out of ten the birds will be hatched if hatched at all, unless the weather is 

 unfavorable and the birds do not sit close ; on the contrary, should the weather be 

 very hot, and the birds sit close with a good warm nest, they will rather hatch 

 before. We will suppose the seventeenth day from" the hen having laid her last 

 egg now arrived, and the young ones beginning to hatch, much attention is now 

 necessary to be paid, and a little judicious assistance is sometimes requisite to 

 assist the young bird in extricating itself from its prison-house, and particularly 

 in the spring, when the young ones even in the shell are more delicate and weakly 

 than they are at a later period of the season, and consequently less able to disengage 

 themselves. If an egg does not spring or chip by the time it ought, namely, in 

 the course of the seventeenth day, the Fancier should hold it to his ear, and if the 

 young one makes a crackling kind of noise, and that pretty briskly, he may 

 conclude it will soon chip ; when it has so chipped, if the young one should not 

 proceed in its endeavours to break the shell as much as the Fancier thinks it ought 

 to have done in the time, and does not continue to make so brisk a noise, it is a 

 sure sign that the young one is weakly and almost exhausted, requiring immediate 

 assistance ; in that case he should gently dent his thumb or finger nail, or the head 

 of a pin, in a circle round the egg, in the same manner as if it had been done from 

 within hy the beak of the young one itself; remembering to let in a little air, 

 which may be safely done at the part where its beak lies, and no blood will issue 

 from it, by which means it will be greatly assisted in extricating itself, and many 

 a valuable bird may be thus saved ; particular care should he taken not to pick a 



