the maturing fecundated eggs, whether by the incubation and warmth of the parent-bird, or by artificial heat, so as to produce young chickens alive.

The art of hatching chickens by means of ovens has long been practised in Egypt; but it is there only known to the inhabitants of a single village named Berne, and to those that live at a small distance from it. Towards the beginning of autumn they scatter themselves all over the country, where each person among them is ready to undertake the management of an oven, each of which is of a different size, but in general they are capable of containing from forty to fourscore thousand eggs. The number of these ovens placed up and down the country is about three hundred and eighty-six, and they usually keep them working for about six months: as therefore each brood takes up in an oven, as under a hen, only twenty-one days, it is easy in every one of them to hatch eight different broods of chickens. Every Bermean is under the obligation of delivering to the person who intrusts him with an oven, only two thirds of as many chickens as there have been eggs put under his care; and he is a gainer by this bargain, as more than two thirds of the eggs usually produce chickens. In order to make a calculation of the number of chickens yearly so hatched in Egypt, it has been supposed, that only two thirds of the eggs are hatched, and that each brood consists of at least thirty thousand chickens; and thus it would appear, that the ovens of Egypt give life yearly to at least ninety-two millions six hundred and forty thousand of these animals.

This useful and advantageous method of hatching eggs has been lately discovered in France, by the ingenious Mr Reaumur, who, by a number of experiments, has reduced the art to certain principles. He found by experience that the heat necessary for this purpose is nearly the same with that marked 32 on his thermometer, or that marked 96 on Fahrenheit's. This degree of heat is nearly that of the skin of the hen, and, what is remarkable, of the skin of all other domestic fowls, and probably of all other kinds of birds. The degree of heat which brings about the development of the cygnet, the gosling, and the turkey-pout, is the same as that which fits for hatching the canary-songster, and, in all probability, the smallest humming bird: the difference is only in the time during which this heat ought to be communicated to the eggs of different birds: it will bring the canary bird to perfection in eleven or twelve days, while the turkey-pout will require twenty seven or twenty-eight.

After many experiments, Mr Reaumur found that stoves heated by means of a baker's oven, succeeded better than those made hot by layers of dung: and the furnaces of glass houses, and those of the meliers of metals, by means of pipes, to convey heat into a room, might, no doubt, be made to answer the same purpose. As to the form of the stoves, no great nicety is required; a chamber over an oven will do very well; nothing more will be necessary but to ascertain the degree of heat, which may be done by melting a lump of butter, of the size of a walnut, with half as much tal- low, and putting it into a phial; this will serve to indicate the heat with sufficient exactness, for when it is too great, this mixture will become as liquid as oil, and when the heat is too small, it will remain fixed in a lump; but it will flow like a thick syrup, upon inclining the bottle, if the stove be of a right temper: great attention therefore should be given to keep the heat always at this degree, by letting in fresh air, if it be too great, or shutting the stove more close, if it be too small; and that all the eggs in the stove may equally share the irregularities of the heat, it will be necessary to shift them from the sides to the centre; thereby imitating the hens, who are frequently seen to make use of their bills, to push to the outer parts those eggs that were nearest to the middle of their nests, and to bring into the middle such as lay nearest the sides.

Mr Reaumur has invented a sort of low boxes, without bottoms, and lined with furs. These, which he calls artificial parents, not only shelter the chickens from the injuries of the air, but afford a kindly warmth, so that they presently take the benefit of their shelter as readily as they would have done under the wings of a hen. After hatching, it will be necessary to keep the chickens, for some time, in a room artfully heated and furnished with these boxes; but afterwards they may be safely exposed to the air in the court yard, in which it may not be amiss to place one of these artificial parents to shelter them if there should be occasion for it.

As to the manner of feeding the young brood, they are generally a whole day after being hatched, before they take any food at all; and then a few crumbs of bread may be given them for a day or two, after which they will begin to pick up insects and grubs for themselves.

But to save the trouble of attending them, capons may be taught to watch them in the same manner as hens do. Mr Reaumur affirms us, that he has seen above two hundred chickens at once, all led about and defended only by three or four such capons. Nay, cocks may be taught to perform the same office, which they, as well as the capons, will continue to do all their lives after.