RANKIN'S DUCK BOOK 



there. He will soon become expert, and can detect life and 

 death in the germ at a glance. Experience alone will give the 

 operator an insight into this business. The incipient stages 

 •of decay, though easily detected by the expert, cannot be in- 

 telligently described by him. The application of a little heat 

 for the short space of twenty days to an inert mass, develop- 

 ing it into active, intelligent life, is simply wonderful. The 

 process and effect he can easily describe, but the procreative 

 power behind it all is beyond his ken. Should a little duckling 

 be taken from the shell on the thirteenth or fourteenth day it 

 will resemble Figure 9. It will kick and struggle several mo- 

 ments after its removal. The yolk is not yet absorbed, but 

 the process is just beginning and will continue until the twen- 

 ty-fourth day, when it will be nearly absorbed. The egg, 

 from the fourteenth day rapidly assumes a darker hue. 



The extremities of the little bird gradually develop, the 

 feathers grow, and at the twentieth day the egg is opaque. 



Figure 9. 



At this stage the embyro will endure greater extremes of heat 

 or cold than at the earlier stage of the hatch. I should not ad- 

 vise the operator to presume upon this, however, but just make 

 the conditions as favorable as he can, so that the little bird 

 will have the strength to free himself from the shell. I need 

 not say that this is the most critical time during the whole 

 process, and matters should be made as favorable for the little 

 duckling as possible. About the twenty-fourth day he will be 

 already to break the shell, but, unlike the chick, who will make 

 his way out of the shell a few hours after he has pipped, the. 

 duckling will lay for forty-eight hours before he is ready to 

 come out. At this time there should be plenty of moisture in 

 the egg-chamber, for should the orifice or broken parts become 

 •dry, and the little duckling, in consequence, be attached to the 

 inside lining so that he cannot turn, he can never get out with- 

 out help. 



[ 57 ] 



