AND TURKEY. 
235 
satisfied herself, she will return to the nest, and the 
grating is to be replaced. She will not require food 
again till next morning at the same time. In this 
manner we have attended to half a dozen Hens and 
a couple of Turkeys, engaged in the process of incuba- 
tion at the same time ; the operation of removing and 
replacing the whole, not occupying more than half an 
hour each morning, and the birds, without the least 
contusion, all again set upon their respective nests. 
The attention incident upon these creatures at this time 
is very interesting; in a day or two, they become so 
familiar, as to permit themselves to be handled with- 
out fear, apparently conscious that no harm is meant ; 
and as the period when the chick is destined to emerge 
from the shell approaches, they become more cautious 
and solicitous, that no injury shall befal the tender 
cases which envelope their future hopes. 
The time which a Common Hen sits is twenty-one 
days, that of a Turkey and Duck about twenty-nine or 
thirty days. 
On the day previous to being hatched, the chirp of 
the bird in the shell proclaims, both to the attendant 
and parent, that the young are about to make ap- 
pearance ; and, on the day following, if all goes well, 
the whole brood will be found rolling amongst broken 
fragments of their late frail tenements. The mother is, 
at this juncture, to be handled with very great care and 
tenderness ; she is to be removed to the feeding board, 
