the task becomes easy; and when once he is taught he will retain the habit to the end of his life, nor ever become tired of the task; for even when unemployed for several months during winter, he will take to it again in spring nearly as well as before.

Though capons probably make the best nurses, it appears to be equally possible to instruct cocks in the art of nursing. "I thought," says Réaumur, “I had sent to school three capons, but one of them proved to be a cock, though he came home as well instructed as his two companions *."

But in the case of artificial hatching by means of ovens, it must frequently be found impossible to procure a sufficient number of nurses either of hens or capons; and in that case, in order to rear the chickens successfully, artificial methods must be continued. Were all the assiduities indeed of the hen required, it would be next to impossible to find an artificial substitute; but as her chief object is to procure food and secure warmth, these with a little attention may be supplied as well or even better by art than by the most assiduous mother. Réaumur, in the course of his interesting experiments, tried several plans for the substitution of what he aptly denominates an artificial mother. By bringing the chickens up in a hot-bed, indeed, it will be easy to make them enjoy a perpetual summer, exempt from exposure to rain or cold nights. They may even be advantageously reared for the first fortnight or three weeks in the oven where they have been hatched, taking them out about five or six times a day for food and water. This, however, is a more troublesome plan than is necessary. Réaumur's statement of some of the difficulties which he met with is so illustrative of the subject that we shall quote the passage.

* Oiseaux Domestiques.

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My apparatus," he says, "did not at first seem sufficiently perfect; for, though the chickens were kept in warm air, they had no equivalent for the gentle pressure of the belly of the mother upon their backs when she sits over them. Their back is, in fact, necessarily more warmed than the other parts of the body while huddling under their mother's wings; whereas their belly often rests on the cold moist earth, the reverse of what took place in the apparatus, where their feet were the best warmed. The chickens themselves indicated that they were more in want of having their backs warmed than any other part of their body; for, after all of them had repaired to the warmest end of the apparatus, instead of squatting as they naturally do when they rest, they remained motionless, standing bolt upright upon their legs, Iwith their backs turned towards the sides or end of the apartment in order to procure the necessary warmth. I therefore judged that they wanted an apparatus that might, by resting on them, determine them to take the same attitude as they naturally assume under the hens, and I contrived an inanimate mother that might supply, in this respect, the want of a living one

ciples, consists of a box lined with sheep-skin, with the wool on it, the bottom being of a square form, and the upper part sloped like a writing-desk. This box is placed at the end of a crib or cage, shut with a grating of willow, net, or wire, and closed above with a hinged lid, the whole being so formed that the chickens can walk round the sides. The slope of the cover permits the chickens to arrange themselves according to their sizes; but as it is their practice, as well as that of all other young birds, to press very closely together, and even to climb upon one another, the small and the weak being thereby in danger of being crushed or smothered, Réaumur constructed his artificial mother open at both ends, or, at most, with only a loose netting hanging over it. Through this the weakest chicken can escape when it feels itself too much squeezed, and then, by going round to the other opening, it may find a less dangerous neighbourhood. The ingenious author even made improvements upon this contrivance, one of which consisted in keeping the cover sloped so low as to prevent the chickens from climbing on each other, and raising it as they increased in growth. Another was, the dividing the

large cribs into two by means of a transverse partition, so as to separate the chickens of different sizes.

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They soon showed me," says Réaumur, “how sensible they were of the advantage of my artificial mother, by their delight in remaining under it and pressing it very close. When they had taken their little meals they jumped and capered about, and when they began to be tired, they repaired to this mother, going so deep into it that they were compelled to squat, so that when the roof was turned up, I perceived the impression of the backs of several chickens upon the fur-lining. There is, indeed, no natural mother that can be so good for the chickens as the artificial one, and they are not long in discovering this, instinct being a quick and sure director. Chickens, direct from the hatching oven, from twelve to twenty-four hours after their escape from the shell, will begin to pick up and swallow small grains or crumbs of bread; and, after having eaten and walked about a little, they soon find their way to the fleecy lodge, where they can rest and warm themselves, remaining till hunger puts them again in motion. They all betake themselves to the artificial mother at night, and leave it exactly at day-break, or when a lamp is brought into the place, producing an artificial day-break, with which, it is worthy of remark, old hens are not affected but remain immoveable on their roosts

A still more elegant and ingenious artificial mother consists of a stove with an apartment round it for the chickens, and a net-work over it, to prevent their escape or their getting too near the stove. This Réaumur found to be an excellent plan for keeping

* Oiseaux Domestiques, as before.

the chickens in good health, while he took advantage of the same heat to hatch fresh broods by hanging eggs in baskets over the stove.

These methods of constructing artificial mothers are applicable to all birds that do not require to be fed by putting food into their bills, or do not go into the water, such as partridges, pheasants, turkeys, and peacocks. But for ducklings and goslings, which require water to swim in, provision must be made accordingly; and Réaumur, proceeding on the principle of following nature, constructed, in the crib connected with an artificial mother, a small pond