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 , all creatures are, more or less, denaturalized by confinement. I once saw a hen at sea, eating the egg which she had just dropt. The sight of the poor sea-sick poultry, in their miserable coops, is at all times exceedingly unpleasant: but I am not ashamed to say, that this seemed to me something shocking. They who have ever thought upon the mystery of incubation will understand the feeling.

 

In Egypt, where they hatch chicken by artificial heat, a hen which has been hatched in the natural way sells for double the price of those from the oven, because the latter will rarely sit upon their eggs. This fact, which is one of the most important upon the subject of instinct, is mentioned in a "Non-Military Journal," written during our campaign against the French in Egypt, and attributed to General