leaves of plants, of which they are very fond, is a great advantage. From these excursions, so productive of health, they may be accustomed to return at a call. Poultry require a liberal supply of grain, and the best and heaviest corn is cheaper in the end than that of inferior quality: on this depend their size, the goodness and sapidity of their flesh, and the richness of the eggs. In Surrey, barley is the usual grain given, excepting during the time of incubation, when the sitting hens have oats, as being less heating to the system than the former.

With respect to the fowl-house, it should be dry and airy, but at the same time warm and well secured from weasels or rats, or from the incursions of the cat or fox. The perches should be conveniently arranged, quite horizontal, and of a thickness sufficient for the birds to clasp firmly. For laying-chambers, wooden boxes, with an entrance sufficient to admit the hen easily, and a ledge before it, are very convenient; these should be ranged round the wall, at about three feet from the ground. Some use wicker baskets fastened to the wall at a convenient height. Wheaten, or rye, or oaten straw should form the nest, never hay, which is too hot, and favourable besides

for the increase of vermin. The boxes or baskets in which the hens incubate should be as secluded as possible, and free from intrusion. The number of eggs may vary from twelve to sixteen, but should never exceed the latter; they should not be stirred, except by the hen, and more especially when incubation has proceeded for some time, lest the position of the chick be interfered with, for if taken up a little time before the exit of the chick, and incautiously replaced with the large end lowermost, the chick from its position will not be able to chip the shell, and must, therefore, perish. The forepart of the chick, be it observed, is towards the biggest end of the eggs, and it is so placed in the shell that the beak is always uppermost. Yet doubled up as the chick is in its close prison, it is enabled by its efforts to break the shell at the appointed time, and to this end its yet soft beak is furnished just above the point of the upper mandible with a small, hard, horny scale,* which, from the position of the head, as Mr. Yarrell observes, is brought in contact with the

inner surface of the shell.

The position of

*This little horny scale in the course of a short time peels off, but may be always seen on the beaks of newly-hatched chickens.

the bill peeping from under the wing remaining unaltered, the shell (greatly thinned and weakened by absorption during incubation,) is at length broken in one spot; this done, the impatient chick turns gradually, almost or entirely completing a revolution, the bill continuing to extend the fracture, which takes place circularly round the large end, about two thirds distant from the extremity of the small end. Sometimes before the fracture is fully complete the chick is enabled to make its exit, completing the fracture by its endeavours to push through. The length of time required for this process varies from an hour to six, and sometimes to twenty-four. In some instances, when the chick is weak and is unable to complete the fracture of the shell, or when the body sticking to the shell prevents it from accomplishing its circular revolution, the chick must be cautiously extricated. After gradually chipping the shell, the portions glued by the hardened white or albumen to the chick, if such there be, must be removed by means of a pair of delicate scissors.

"When the chick," says Réaumur, “is entirely or almost out of the shell, it draws its head from under its wing, where it had hitherto

been placed, stretches out its neck, directing it forwards, but for several minutes is unable to raise it. On seeing for the first time a chick in this condition we are led to infer that its strength is exhausted, and that it is ready to expire; but in most cases it recruits rapidly, its organs acquire strength, and in a very short time it appears quite another creature. After having dragged itself on its legs a little while, it becomes capable of standing on them, and of lifting up its neck, and bending it in various directions, and at length of holding up its head. At this period the feathers are merely fine down, but as they are wet with the fluid of the egg the chick appears almost naked. From the multitude of their branchlets, these down feathers resemble minute shrubs; when, however, these branchlets are wet and sticking to each other, they take up very little room; as they dry they become disentangled and separated. The branchlets, plumules, or beards of each feather are at first inclosed in a membranous tube, by which they are pressed and kept close together, but as soon as this dries it splits asunder, an effect assisted also by the elasticity of the plumules themselves, which causes them to recede and

but

spread themselves out. This being accom. plished, each down feather extends over a considerable space, and when they all become dry and straight, the chick appears completely clothed in a warm vestment of soft down."

It is usual as the chicks in turn make their exit from the egg to remove them, and keep them warmly covered up, till all are excluded and the hen is ready to take them under her charge altogether. Within twentyfour hours they begin to pick, and should be supplied with crumbs of bread, soaked in milk, egg boiled hard and chopped small, grits, and other grain. It is desirable to keep the chickens for the first week or ten days with the hen under cover, in some convenient place, so that the former may not be exposed. to wet or to sudden changes of temperature, to which in the spring more especially they will be liable, and when during a sunny morning they are allowed to run about, the hen should be secured under a wicker coop, lest she should wander abroad, followed by her brood, to their risk, from various causes. The clucking note by which the hen calls her brood around her, and her fearlessness and self-devotion in their defence, are universally