

THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY 



AUGUST, 1838. 



Art. I. Observations on some of the Domestic Instincts of Birds. 

 By The Rev. Dr. Brehm, of Renthendorf, in Saxony.* 



Birds present in their habits an interesting feature which 

 distinguishes them from almost all other animals, viz., that 

 most of them not only live in monogamy, but in a union which 

 ends only with the death of one of the parties. f Moreover, 

 the union of birds is distinguished by the circumstance, that 

 the males of almost all the species living in monogamy, inte- 

 rest themselves in their progeny, whereas in the Mammalia, 

 man alone excepted, it is only the female who takes charge 

 of the young. This is partly a natural consequence of their 

 being suckled by the female parent; but even after they have 

 been weaned, the dam alone feeds or guides them, whereas 

 the male does not even know or acknowledge his progeny. 



In the lower animals, both vertebrated and invertebrated, 

 even the female is released from the obligation of taking care 

 of her offspring from the time that they are separated from 

 her, except in those insects which form well-regulated socie- 

 ties, where the progeny are the objects of particular attend- 

 ance. Faber states that the male of the Cyclopterus lumpus 

 squats down near the eggs and eyes them with great satisfac- 

 tion; but this dwindles into insignificance in comparison 

 with the care which the males of most species of birds be- 

 stow on their progeny. 



* Read before the German Natural Philosophers and Physicians, assem- 

 bled at Jena, in the autumn of 1836. Communicated by Dr. Weissenborn. 



f Among butterflies there is a Mexican species, the Papilio Teucer, which 

 lives in monogamy, according to the statement of Mr. Friedrich, of Alten- 

 burg ; a condition not otherwise observed in Lepidopterous insects. 



Vol. II.— No. 20. n. s. o o 



