P H A S I A N U S. 
64 
contiguous and joined above to the fubftance of the au¬ 
ricles. Two fucceffive motions are obferved in the au¬ 
ricles, which refemble two feparate hearts. About the 
end of the ninth day the lungs appear, and ore of a whitiffi 
colour. On the tenth day the mufcles of the wings are 
completely formed, and the feathers continue to (hoot. 
It is not till the eleventh day that we perceive the arte¬ 
ries, which were before at a diftance from the heart, cohere 
to it; and this orgaft is now perfeft and united into two 
ventricles. The following days are fpent in the farther 
expanfion of the parts, which continues till the chick 
breaks its fheil; and this happens commonly the twenty- 
firlt day, fometimes the eighteenth, and at others the 
twenty-fecond ; depending much on warmth of (ituation, 
or heat of climate. 
All this train of phenomena, which prefents fo intereft- 
ing a fpeftacle to the obferver, is the effe<5f of incubation 
by a hen; and human indulfry has found it not beneath 
its notice to imitate the procefs. Formerly, the rude 
peafants of Egypt, and in our own times philofophers, 
have fucceeded in hatching eggs, as well as the mod 
careful fitter. In Egypt, even at this day, they are hatched 
by thoufands, and people from all quarters come at the 
expended time, to buy them to rear. The whole fecret 
coniifts in keeping the eggs at a temperature which nearly 
correfponds to the warmth of the hen, and in preventing 
every kind of humidity and pernicious exhalations, fuch 
as tliofe of charcoal, burning fuel, and even that of tainted 
eggs. By obferving thefe two conditions, and being at¬ 
tentive in repeatedly (hifting the eggs, and varying the 
place of the oven or (love where the balkets are placed, 
fo that not only each egg, but every part of it, may enjoy 
alike the requisite heat, we may fucceed in hatching mil¬ 
lions of chickens. See the article Egg, vol. vi. p. 285. 
While the hen has been in fome countries relieved 
from labours fo natural and fo pleafing to her, (he has 
been occafionally fubjefted to others which might feem 
very unnatural indeed. The Chinefe have a method of 
making the hen contribute to the hatching of fi(h. The 
filhermen of that country, we are told, collect with care, 
on the margin and furface of the waters, all thofe gelati¬ 
nous mattes which contain the fpawn of fifli; and, after 
they have found a fufiicient quantity, they (ill with it the 
(hell of a frefh hen-egg which they have previoufly 
emptied, and put it under a fitting fowl. At the expira¬ 
tion of a certain number of days, they break the fhel! in 
water warmed by the fun. The young fry are prefently 
hatched, and are kept in pure fre(h water till they are 
large enough to be thrown into the pond with the old 
fi(h. The (ale of fpawn for this purpofe forms an import¬ 
ant branch of trade in China. In this, as in fome other 
matters, we might perhaps take an ufeful leffon from 
the Chinefe. The deftruftion of the fpawn of fi(h by 
troll-nets threatens the exigence of the (illiery on many 
of our fouthern coalfs ; and, while fo much care is taken 
for the prefervation of game, fome care ought to be be¬ 
llowed on the prefervation of fifli, as being a much more 
important article. Mvfeuni, July 26, 1823. 
We (hall eafily conceive, that the mother which (hows 
fo ftrong an inclination to cover her eggs, fits on them 
with fuch unremitting affiduity, and takes fo lively a 
concern for embryos that have yet no being, will not cool 
in her attachment after the chickens are hatched. Her 
affeftion is heightened by the fight of thefe little crea¬ 
tures, that owe to her their exiftence ; it is every day in- 
creafed by the repetition of cares which their feeblenefs 
requires. Continually employed in watching over them, 
flie feeks food, merely to (atisfy their craving wants. If 
(he cannot find it, (he fcrapes the earth with her nails to 
extraft the nourifliment concealed in its bofom,and freely 
beftcws it on her young. She recals them when they 
wander, fpreads her wings over them to defend them 
againffthe inclemency of the weather, and broods a fecond 
time. She enters into thefe tender concerns with fo much 
ardour and anxiety, that her health is vifibly impaired, 
and (he can be diflinguiflied from every other hen by her 
ruffled feathers, her trailing, wings; and the hoarfenefs of 
her voice, and the different inflections, are all expreflive 
of her (ituation, and mark folicitude and maternal affec¬ 
tion. If (he has been made to fit on ducks’eggs, or thofe 
of any other water-fowl, her affedlion is no lei's ardent for 
bringing up thefe (trangers than for her own progeny : 
(lie does not perceive that (lie is only their nurfe, and not 
their mother; and when, diredted by nature, they plunge 
into the dream, it is amufing to obferve the adonifhment, 
uneafinefs, and vexation, of the poor nurfe, who fancies 
(lie is dill a mother; impelled on the one hand by the 
defire of following them into the midd of the water, 
checked on the other by the invincible repugnance to 
that element, teafing herfelf with fruitlefs building along 
the margin, trembling, forlorn, beholding her family in 
imminent danger, and not daring to afford them help. 
For an artificial method of rearing poultry, without the 
aflidance of the hen, fird hinted at by Reaumur, and im¬ 
proved by Mrs. Doyley, fee the article Husbandry, 
vol. x. p. 520, 1. 
Poultry differ from birds of prey, no lefs by their mode 
of digedion and the (tructure of the dornach, than by their 
bill anil their nails. The gallinaceous tribe may be con- 
fidered as having three (tomachs; viz. 1. The craw, which 
is a kind of membranous bag, where the grain is fird ma¬ 
cerated, and begins to be reduced to a pap. 2. The wided 
part of the canal, lying between the craw and the gizzard, 
but neared the lad, is lined with a number of Final 1 
glands, which furnifli a liquor that the food imbibes in its 
paflage. 3. The gizzard, which yields a liquor that is 
rnanifeltly acid, fince the internal coat, being foaked in 
water, becomes an excellent runnet for curdling milk. 
This third dornach completes, by the powerful action of 
its mufcles, what had only been begun in the two fird. 
The force of its fibres is greater than could be conceived; 
in lefs than four hours a ball of glafs, which could fudain 
a preffure of four pounds, is reduced to an impalpable 
powder. In forty-eight hours, feveral tubes of glafs,four 
lines in diameter and one line thick, were divided longi¬ 
tudinally into two kinds of fra ft u res ; and, at the end of 
that time, all the (harp edges were ground down, and the 
polifii dedroyed, particularly on the convex part. The 
gizzard wjs alfo able to flatten tubes of tinned iron, and, 
in the fpace of twenty-four hours, to crufli feventeen nuts ; 
and this was effefted by repeated compreflions and alter¬ 
nate attrition, the mechanifm of which it is difficult to 
perceive. Reaumur, who made feveral trials to difcover 
it, never could didinguifli but once any confiderable 
motion in that part. He favv in a capon, the gizzard of 
which he had brought into view, portions contrafling 
and finking, and again fwelling; he obferved a kind of 
fiefliy chords which formed on the furface, or rather ap¬ 
peared to be forming, becaufe he made inciflons between 
them which feparated them ; and all thefe motions ap¬ 
peared to be propagated in waves, and very (lowly. 
What proves that, in gallinaceous birds, digeflion is 
performed chiefly by the aftion of the mufcles of the giz¬ 
zard, and not by the power of any folvent, is, that if one 
of thefe be made to fwallow a ("mail lead tube, open at both 
ends, but fo thick as to refill the compreffion of the giz¬ 
zard, and into which a grain of barley be introduced, the 
tube wilL.be found in the fpace of two days to have loll 
confiderably of its weight ; but the grain inclofed, though 
it were boiled and fhelled, will then be difcovered to be 
fomewhat fweiled, but as little altered as if it had been 
left the fame time in any other place equally humid; 
whereas the fame grain, and others that are much harder, 
if not protefted by a tube, would be digefied in much 
lefs time. One circumftance which may affifl: the aftion 
of the gizzard is, that birds keep the cavity as full as 
poffible, and thus the four mufcles of which it confifts are 
thrown into play. When grain is wanting, they cram it 
with herbage, and even fmall flints, the hardnefs and 
roughnefs of which contribute to bruife the grain againft 
4 which 
