THE POULTRY BOOK. 
151 
time, they never cease screaming violently until destroyed outright ; hence, I have 
known many instances where midnight prowlers after hen-roosts have been at once 
detected, or luckily prevented absconding with their booty, the reiterated cries of 
alarm from their victims calling forth the immediate aid of the proprietor. In case, 
too, of attack from vermin, their agility generally preserves them from injury ; for 
on such occasions they will fly like pheasants, and readily take to trees or the 
highest buildings. For these simple reasons, it is very rarely any of these fowls 
are absent without leave. 
“I have, during my somewhat lengthened experience in poultry matters, met 
with a few isolated instances in which Hamburghs have incubated their own nest 
of eggs steadily, and afterwards manifested the most exemplary attention to their 
chickens. But such cases are very few, and quite opposed to general rule : it 
is also invariable, so far as my knowledge extends, that the nests of such hens have 
been stolen in some secret out-of-the-way place, and the numbers of eggs previously 
laid have held out unusual inducements to incubation. On one occasion, more par- 
ticularly, I well recollect a Golden-pencilled Hamburgh hen who laid away under 
the floor of a barn, to which, unknown to the owner, she had obtained a private 
mode of access : she laid all her eggs on the dry, somewhat chaffy ground, a 
hollow being made previously by her own exertions. Here, quite secluded from 
observation or even daylight, she hatched eighteen chickens, and brought them out 
herself ; and after-inspection by the owner proved that all the eggs had produced 
chickens, as the shells remaining tallied with the number of chickens produced. 
The hen succeeded in rearing sixteen of these youngsters. I also knew another 
case, in which from sixteen eggs laid away behind some old refuse timber, fourteen 
chickens were hatched, whilst the remaining two contained fully-formed chickens ; 
the exact number that were eventually reared I do not know, but am certain it 
proved the greater proportion. A circumstance connected with these instances of 
Hamburghs hatching their own young, though a digression, I consider well worthy 
of notice ; viz., in both cases referred to, the proprietors of the fowls mentioned had 
placed many sets of other eggs from the same hens under strange foster-mothers, 
a large proportion of which were unproductive, whilst the eggs in the stolen nests 
were all fruitful. I will not myself attempt to assign a cause for this marked 
difference in their fertility, but simply confine myself to the narration of the fact. 
In both instances these fowls were harassed by a continual and rigid daily search 
for eggs produced, and thus fretted, concealed their nests, most probably, simply to 
avoid molestation. I myself never yet knew any case whatever where a thoroughly 
well-bred Hamburgh hen commenced sitting openly. They will sometimes appear 
dull and broody for a day or two under such circumstances ; but the effort seems 
quite unnatural, and speedily passes away. It is but right to add, in the two 
first instances I have mentioned of successful rearing, both parents vs^ere perfectly 
well-bred ; and the offspring, thus strangely procured, afterwards took numerous 
first prizes at different poultry exliibitions. 
All the Hamburghs are somewhat prone to faulty combs, from either being 
