its parts are put into motion by the gentle rarefaction. By this
means, pressure and motion are communicated to the parts of the egg,
which, in some inscrutable way, gradually promote the formation and
growth of the young, till the time comes for its escaping from the
shell. To preserve an egg perfectly fresh, and even fit for incubation,
for 5 or 6 months after it has been laid, Reaumur, the French
naturalist, has shown that it is only necessary to stop up its pores
with a slight coating of varnish or mutton-suet.

925. BIRDS HOWEVER, DO NOT LAY EGGS before they have some place to put
them; accordingly, they construct nests for themselves with astonishing
art. As builders, they exhibit a degree of architectural skill,
niceness, and propriety, that would seem even to mock the imitative
talents of man, however greatly these are marked by his own high
intelligence and ingenuity.

"Each circumstance
Most artfully contrived to favour warmth.
Here read the reason of the vaulted roof;
How Providence compensates, ever kind,
The enormous disproportion that subsists
Between the mother and the numerous brood
Which her small bulk must quicken into life."

In building their nests, the male and female generally assist each
other, and they contrive to make the outside of their tenement bear as
great a resemblance as possible to the surrounding foliage or branches;
so that it cannot very easily be discovered even by those who are in
search of it. This art of nidification is one of the most wonderful
contrivances which the wide field of Nature can show, and which, of
itself, ought to be sufficient to compel mankind to the belief, that
they and every other part of the creation, are constantly under the
protecting power of a superintending Being, whose benign dispensations
seem as exhaustless as they are unlimited.

[Illustration]

RECIPES.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHICKEN CUTLETS (an Entree).

926. INGREDIENTS.--2 chickens; seasoning to taste of salt, white pepper,
and cayenne; 2 blades of pounded mace, egg and bread crumbs, clarified
butter, 1 strip of lemon-rind, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 2 tablespoonfuls of
mushroom ketchup, thickening of butter and flour, 1 egg.

_Mode_.--Remove the breast and leg bones of the chickens; cut the meat
into neat pieces after having skinned it, and season the cutlets with
pepper, salt, pounded mace, and cayenne. Put the bones, trimmings, &c.,
into a stewpan