It is said that hens will sometime lay as many as two hundred _eggs_ in twelve months. The chickens are naturally produced by the warmth of the parents sitting upon them, and generally in about three weeks after the operation has commenced. In Egypt, however, it is customary to hatch chickens in ovens by artificial heat. These ovens are sometimes so large as to contain from 40,000 to 80,000 eggs; and it has been calculated that more than 100,000,000 of chickens are annually brought to life in this manner. A similar mode of hatching them was, some years ago, introduced into France by M. de Reaumur; but the practice does not appear to have been much followed. Some villages in Sussex are famous for poultry, which are fattened to a size and perfection not known elsewhere. They are fed on ground oats made into gruel, by a mixture with hog's grease, sugar, pot-liquor, and milk; or on ground oats, treacle, suet, &c. They are kept warm, and crammed for about a fortnight before they are sold to the higlers. The cramming is performed by rolling their food into pieces of sufficient size to be passed down their throats. When full grown these fowls weigh six or seven pounds, and are sold at four shillings and sixpence or five shillings each. What are called _Darking fowls_ are a very large breed which are also reared in Sussex. To ascertain whether eggs are fresh, some persons hold them up against a strong light, to see that the white has not lost its transparency; others put their tongue to the large end, and if this feel warm they are considered to be good. If, on shaking them, they are heard to rattle, they are bad. It is said that eggs may be preserved, for many months, by being covered with a thin coat of mutton suet, or other fat substance; but perhaps a better mode than this would be to cover them with a cheap varnish, by which, as well as by the fat, the air would be prevented from penetrating the shells, and thereby rendering the eggs putrid. Eggs are an agreeable and nourishing food, and are used in various ways in cookery. The whites are of use in medicine. They have been employed with advantage in burns, and have been recommended as a specific for the cure of jaundice. They are likewise used by gilders and artisans. The yolks are employed in medicine in several different ways, but most frequently in emulsions. The shells of eggs serve for various purposes, but chiefly as a white colour, in painting, which is considered preferable to that called flake white. The _feathers_ of poultry are used, to considerable extent, for making beds, pillows, and bolsters; but they are by no means so excellent as those of geese. 162. _The GUINEA-FOWL, GALLINA, or PINTADO_ (Numidia meleagris), _is an African bird, which is now domesticated in most parts of Europe, and is known by the red or bluish wattles, under the throat, a naked protuberance on the head, their slender neck, and beautifully spotted plumage._