ARTII ICIAL HATCIITXG. 
503 
tic and probably of all other kinds of birds. The degree of 
heat, ^hich brings about the development of the chick, the gosling, 
aiid the turkey pout, is the same as that which hatches the canary 
songster, and in all probability the smallest humming bird ; the differ- 
ence is only in the time this heat ought to be communicated to the 
eggs of different birds. It will bring the canary bird to perfection in 
eleven or twelve days, while the turkey pout will require twenty-seven 
or twenty-eight. After many experiments, Mr. Reaumur found, that 
stoves heated by a baker’s oven succeeded better than those made 
hot by layers of dung; and the furnaces of glass-houses, and those 
of the melters of metals, by means of pipes to convey heat into a 
room, might, no doubt, be made to answer the same purpose. As to 
the form of the stoves, no great nicety is required. A chamber over 
an oven will do very well. Nothing more is necessary to know when 
you have obtained the degree of heat, than by melting a lump of but- 
ter, of the size of a walnut, with half as much tallow, and putting it 
into a phial. This serves to indicate the heat with sufficient exactness, 
for when it is too great, this mixture will become as liquid as oil ; and 
when the heat is too small, it will remain fixed in a lump ; but it will 
shew like a thick syrup, upon inclining the bottle,' if the stove be of 
a right temperature. Great attention, therefore, should be given to 
keep the heat always at this degree, by letting in fresh air if it be too 
great, or shutting the stove more closely if it be too small ; and that 
all the eggs in the stove may equally share the irregularity of the 
heat, it will be necessary to shift tlsem from the sides to the centre ; 
and thus to imitate the hens, which are often seen to make use of 
their bills to push to the outer parts those egg^ that were nearest to 
the middle of their nest, and to bring into the middle such as lay 
nearest the sides. 
Mr. Reaumur has invented a sort of low boxes, without bottoms, 
and lined with furs. These, which he calls Artificial Parents, not only 
shelter the chickens from the injury of the air, but afford a kindly 
warmth, so that they take the benefit of their shelter as readily as 
they would have done under the wings of a hen. After hatching, it 
will be necessary to keep the chickens in a room artificially heated, and 
furnished with these boxes; but afterwards they may be safely exposed 
to the air in the court yard, in which it may not be amiss to place one 
of these artificial parents to shelter them, if there should be occasion 
for it. They are generally a whole day after being hatched, before 
they take any food at all. A few crumbs of bread may then be given 
them for a day or two, after which they will pick up insects and grass 
for themselves. But to save the trouble of attending them, capons 
may be taught to watch them in the same manner as hens do. Mr. 
Reaumur says he had seen above two hundred chickens at once, all 
led about and defended by three or four capons only. Nay, cocks 
may be taught to perform the same office, which they, as well as the 
capons, will continue to do all their lives after. 
