14 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Mode of treating chicks produced by stoves. 



bring the canary-bird to perfection in eleven or 

 twelve days, while the turkey-poult requires 

 twenty, or twenty-eight. He also found that 

 stoves, heated by means of pipes from a baker's 

 oven, or the furnaces of glass-houses, succeeded 

 better than those made hot by the layers of dung > 

 the mode preferred in Egypt. These should have 

 their heat kept as nearly equal as possible ; and 

 the eggs should be frequently removed from the 

 sides into the middle, in order that each may re- 

 ceive* an equal portion. After his eggs were 

 hatched, he had the offspring put into a kind of 

 low boxes, without bottoms, and fined with fur; 

 whose warmth supplied the place of a hen, and 

 in which the chickens could at any time take 

 shelter. These were kept in a warm room till 

 the chickens acquired some strength ; they then 

 could be placed, with safety, exposed to the open 

 air, in a court-yard. The young brood are ge- 

 nerally a whole day, after being hatched, before 

 they take any food at all ; and then a few crumbs 

 of bread are given for a day or two, after which 

 time they begin to pick up insects and grains for 

 themselves. But, in order to save the trouble 

 of attending them, capons are taught to watch 

 them, the same as hens. M. de Reaumur says, 

 that he has seen above two hundred chickens at 

 once, all led about and defended by only three 

 or four capons. It is asserted, that even cocks 

 may be taught to perform this office ; which they 

 will continue to do all their lives afterward. 



a 



