4IO REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



When she has produced about twenty eggs .a desire to sit is mani- 

 fested : if this is permitted, twelve or fifteen eggs, placed in a basket 

 filled with straw, are given her ; uttering a peculiar clucking, and 

 spreading her wings, she sits upon her treasures, and covers them 

 with so much perseverance as sometimes to forget to eat or drink. 

 During twenty-one days the eggs are maintained at a uniform, 

 temperature of about 40 ° centigrade ; at the end of that time the 

 young chickens burst their shell. The Hen fulfils the duties of a 

 mother with incomparable devotion and tenderness ; she follows her 

 young step by step, call them to her when they stray, and seeks 

 nourishment for them, disregarding her own wants till theirs are 

 satisfied. Against all dangers she warns and protects them. If a 

 bird of prey appears, she hastens to meet it, and assumes such a 

 menacing attitude that few will not decline the contest. The chickens 

 rapidly develop. At the end of a month the crests of the males, 

 show; at six months they have acquired the vigour necessary for re- 

 production, females begin to lay about the same time. At the age of 

 three months transforming the younger birds into capons and 

 pullets is performed — names given to those deprived of their sexual 

 organs. In this condition they are fattened, and acquire a superior 

 flavour and delicacy of flesh. Pullets and capons, in losing the gene- 

 rative faculty, lose also the inherent characteristics of their sex. The 

 temper of the male becomes so subdued that he has been made to 

 perform maternal duties when a hen has deserted her chickens to 

 recommence laying. This is done by plucking out feathers from the 

 capon's stomach, and then rubbing the part with nettles ; the chickens, 

 gliding under him, allay the pain which the stings have caused, and 

 thus the bird, deriving pleasure from his wards, soon attaches himself 

 to them. The departments of Sarthe and Ain are celebrated for the 

 pullets there raised. 



Hatching is sometimes performed by artificial incubation. In 

 olden times the Egyptians had recourse to this means to increase the 

 production of poultry. The method which was used and which is 

 still employed in modern Egypt, consists in placing the eggs in a fur- 

 nace maintained for twenty-one days at a uniform temperature of 40 ° 

 centigrade. By this means a hundred millions of fowls are annually 

 produced in Egypt. Simple as this operation appears, it is not 

 without difficulty, for attempts in France have never been crowned 

 with success. In the Sunda Islands artificial incubation is ac- 

 complished by men, who, for a small salary, remain for three weeks 

 stretched out and immovable upon eggs placed in ashes. Antiquity 

 has bequeathed to us the story of the Empress Li via, who, being 



