the eggs abortive: and there is scarcely an instance of a hatch of eggs that will not afford a greater number of chickens, if a little artificial assistance be afforded. Some of the chicks, for instance, are weak; while others, though not wanting in strength, still meet with more resistance than they can overcome from the shell or its membrane; and others again, though sufficiently strong, and enclosed in a shell and membrane of the usual thickness and consistence, are unable to effect an exit, even when an aperture is made for them, in consequence, it would appear, of 'some unknown cause depriving them of the power making the circular revolution on their own bodies, which, remaining in the same position, stick to the shell.

of

In order to understand how a chick may be thus glued to its shell it will be necessary to recollect, that between its body and the lining membrane is the white of the egg, or glairy adhesive fluid, which, by drying, becomes a sort of cement, very apt to cause the feathers to adhere to the membrane with which they are in contact.. The chick of an egg which has been subjected in artificial hatching to a temperature too high is in the most danger of such an accident; though it seldom happens before it has made a pretty large breach in the place first chipt, and has also rent the membrane, after which operations it remains a good while at rest. The air introduced through this rent soon changes into a hard tenacious glue the fluid white next the margin of the aperture, as well as to some distance inward; so that when the chick is desirous of returning to its task it can only peck at the same place, being held fast from moving its body by the glue. Its attempts pull the feathers, and make it squeak; and from its efforts being more and more painful, the desire to move is abandoned. Under such circumstances the chick, if un

assisted, must die, and hence it may not be useless to point out the indications by which this state of things may be recognised. Whenever, then, a considerable fracture of both the shell and the membrane is observed to remain for five or six hours without enlargement, and at the same time the margin of the membrane is perceived to be hard and dry, with perhaps some feathers sticking to it, it will be indispensable to liberate the chick by breaking the shell very gently with a key or some such instrument, and by cutting the membrane with the points of a pair of scissors. The operation, though painful to the chick, does not prove mortal, for it is no sooner freed than it exhibits as much vigour as any other chick of its age.

In the case of a chick not having sufficient strength to break through the shell, the indication will be a slight chip appearing and continuing for several hours without either being extended or the membrane rent. Here it will be requisite to lend assistance, as in the former case; and if it come not too late, as soon as the chick is exposed to the air, it will pull out its head, stretch its neck, and endeavour to get out of the shell.

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CHAPTER X.

SHELTERING OF THE YOUNG.

IN rearing tender song birds taken from their mothers, as is frequently done, before they are fledged, experience proves that warmth is no less indispensable than food; exposure to cold during the night frequently killing the most healthy nestlings. The mother-birds, well aware of this, are equally assiduous in covering their chicks after they are hatched as they had previously been while sitting on the eggs. Among small birds (Sylvicolæ, VIEILLOT), accordingly, for several days after her brood has been hatched, the mother seldom quits the nest, the male providing the food necessary for her and the little ones, who as yet require but a very small portion. The wren, and other birds which build domed nests, have this additional protection to prevent the dissipation of their animal heat; and birds of prey, pigeons, and crows have but a small number of nestlings to shelter.

In the case again of poultry, when the newlyhatched birds can run about, the mothers have no little trouble in sheltering them from cold, and, even during the hottest weather, from rain, which proves very injurious in consequence of the cold produced by its evaporation. However much, also, we may admire the ingenuity of birds in some things, and their anxious affection for their young, yet they exhibit in other instances great apparent stupidity; and maternal affection, so far from sharpening their faculties, seems at first rather to blind them, and to cause them to

orchard hedge-rows at Mehlem; and we at once acknowledged the accuracy of our great poet, who 'describes the eagle towering in his pride of place"

* J. R.

more than once, not without pleasure and admiration, a capon bringing up a brood of chickens like a hen, clucking of them, feeding them, aud brooding them under his wings, with as much care and tenderness as their dams are wont to do *." This leads us to the very curious subject of training capons to perform the office of a mother, which was practised as early as the sixteenth century.

In order to train a capon for this purpose we are instructed by Baptista Porta, in his curious book on Natural Magic, to make him so tame that he will take food out of the hand, then about even-tide to pluck the feathers off his breast, to irritate the bare skin by rubbing it with nettles, and then to put the chickens to him. They will naturally huddle under him, and by rubbing with their heads allay the itching caused by the nettles; and upon repeating this for two or three nights, he will gradually take an affection for the chickens and attend to them like a mother. The author thinks it may probably be on the principle of mutual distress producing mutual sympathy, that the querulous chirp of the chickens may make him, while in pain himself, desirous of allaying their misery. A capon, once accustomed to this office, will not abandon it, but, when one brood is grown up, another of newly-hatched chickens may be put to him, and he will be as kind to them and take as much care of them as of the first, and so in succession t.

The feeling of tenderness for the young broods of other birds, in whatever way it may be supposed to originate, has been exemplified in several very striking instances, both among birds and other animals. "In the month of May," says M. de Buffon, young hen-bird was brought to me, which was not Ray's Willughby, p. 156. † Magia Naturalis, iv. 26.

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