NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Artificial means of hatching ggs. 



tempted. The most successful, though by no 

 means the most humane, is said to be where a 

 bapon is made to supply the place of a hen. He 

 is rendered very tame ; the feathers are jacked 

 from his breast, and the bare parts are rubbed 

 with nettles. The chickens are then put to him; 

 and by their running under his breast with their 

 soft and downy bodies, his pain is so much 

 allayed, and he feels so much comfort to his fea- 

 therless part, that he soon adopts them, feeding 

 them like a hen, and assiduously performing all 

 the functions of the tenderest parent. 



Chickens have long been hatched in Egypt by 

 means of artificial heat. This is now principally 

 practised by the inhabitants of a village called 

 Berme, and by those who live at a little distance 

 from it. Towards the beginning of autumn, 

 these persons spread themselves all over the 

 country; and each of them is ready to undertake 

 the management of an oven. These ovens are 

 of different sizes, each capable of containing 

 from forty to eighty thousand eggs; and the 

 number of ovens in different parts is about three 

 hundred and eighty-six. They are usually kept 

 in exercise for about six months; and as each 

 brood takes up twenty-one days in hatching, it 

 is easy in every one of them to produce eight 

 different broods of chickens in the year. The 

 ovens where these eggs are placed, are of the most 

 simple construction; consisting only of a low 

 arched apartment of clay. Two rows of shelves 



