THE COCK. IS 



Eg3'ptian ovens for hatching eggs. 



are formed, and the eggs are placed on these jn 

 such a manner as not to touch each other. They 

 are slightly moved five or six times in every 

 twenty-four hours. All possible care is taken to 

 diffuse the heat equally throughout ; and there is 

 but one aperture, just large enough to admit a 

 man stooping. During the first eight days the 

 heat is rendered great ; but during the last eight 

 it is gradually diminished, till at length, when. 

 the young brood are ready to come forth, it is 

 reduced almost to the state of the natural atmos- 

 phere. At the end of the first eight days it is 

 known which of the eggs will be productive. 



Every person who undertakes the care of an 

 oven, is under the obligation only of delivering 

 to his employer two-thirds of as many chickens as 

 there have been eggs given to him ; and he is a 

 gainer by this bargain, as it always happens, ex- 

 cept from some unlucky accident, that manv 

 more than that proportion of the eggs produce 

 chickens. It is calculated that the ovens in 

 Egypt annually give life to almost a hundred mil- 

 lions of these animals. 



The ingenious M. de Reaumur introduced this 

 useful and advantageous mode of hatching eggs 

 into France. By a number of experiments, he 

 reduced the art to certain principles. He found 

 that the degree of heat necessary for producing 

 all kinds of domestic fowls was the same ; the 

 nly difference consisted in the time during which 

 it ought to be communicated to the eggs : it will 



