The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1880-03-05
The Process OF Incuba tiO11.

| There are many things the existence
of which the majority of us live and die
in ignorance of Only by close obser-
vation do we acquaint ourselves with
some interesting facts. We know that
hen sits three weeks before bringing
out her young a turkey sits four weeks
or about twenty-six days; the common
duck nearly the same length of time; ;
while a robin brings out her tiedgllng IN
about eleven days. The young OF the
latter bird is not fully formed when it
comes from the shell. The eyes, beak
and feathers grow afterward, and the
| body grows inso shape, requiring fully
eleven days more before the young bird
can help itself, and indeed many days
after leaving the nest it is fed and cared
for by the parents.
The Peoples Practical Poultry Book"
says of incubation; The hen has scarce
ly set on her eggs twelve hours before
some lineaments of the head and body OF
the chicken appear. The heart may be
seen to beat at the end of the second day
of incubation. 1t has at this time some
what the form of a horseshoe; but no
blood appears AT the end of two days
two vessels of blood are to be distinguish
ed; the pulsation of which is very visi-
BILE one of these is the left ventricle, and
the other the root of the great artery.
At the fiftieth hour one auricle of the
heart appears, resembling a moose folded
down upon itself The beating of the
heart is observed in the auricle, and aeer-
ward in the ventricle AT the end OF
seventy hours the wings are distinguish
able; and on the head two bubbles are
seen for the brain, and one for the bill,
and two for the fore and hind part OF the
head. Toward the end of the fourth day
the two auricles already visible draw
nearer to the heart than before. The
liver appears toward the end OF the nth
day. At the end of one hundred and
thfrtv-one hours the first voluntary mo-
ton is observed. At the end OF seven
hours more the lungs and stomach become
visible. and four hours afterward the IN
testines and loins and upper jaw. AT the
one hundred and forty-fourth hour the
yentricles are visible and two drops OF
blood instead of the single one that was
seen before. On the seventh day the
brain begins to have some consistency.
Al the two hundred and nineteenth hour
the bill opens, and the flesh appears on
the breast. In four hours more the breast
bone is seen. In six hours after this the
ribs appear forming from the back, and
the bill is clearly visible, as well as the
gall-bladder. The bill becomes green at
the end of two hundred and thirty-six
hours, and if the chicken be taken out of
its covering at this period it evidently
moves itself The feathers begin to shoot
out toward the end of the two hundred
and fortieth hour, and the skull becomes
gristlv. At the two hundred and eighty
eighth hour the ribs are perfect. At the
three hundred and thirty-first hour the
spleen draws near the stomach, and the
lungs to the chest. At, the end of three
hundred and fifty-five hours the bill ire
duently opens and shuts; and at the eIsi
of the eighteenth day the first cry of the
chicken is heard. 1t afterward gets more
strength and grows continually, till at
length it is enabled to set itself free from
its confinement
In the whole process we must remark
that every part appears in its proper time.
If for example, the liver is formed on
the fifth day, it is founded on the preced-
ing situation of the chicken, and on the
changes that are to follow. No part of
the body could possibly appear sooner or
later without the whole embryo suffering.
Country Gentleman.