Fragments of Chiiitliology, iSST 



age and vigour of the bird." If a nest be robbed; " the female 

 stimulates to love again ; and soon brings forward, by that 

 stimulus, aided by the male fecundity, a new lot of eggs : 

 never more than the former, and usually less." {Ibid,^ p. 161, 

 162.) " After the first ^^^^ [in any of the courses of laying, 

 Montagu must have meant] is laid, the others must succes* 

 sively follow, one after the other, each in twenty-four hours." 

 {Ibid., p. 119.) [Montagu has added, " with a few exceptions 

 in the larger undomesticated birds ; " and has assumed the 

 cuckoo to be another exception, and deemed it possible that 

 this bird has the power to retain its mature egg until it has 

 found a nest to receive it.] " Another wonderful fact," says 

 Jesse {Gleanings in Natural History, series i. p. 193 — 195.), 

 '' respecting eggs is, that some birds have the property of 

 either retaining their egg after it has arrived at maturity, or of 

 suppressing altogether the further progress of those eggs which 

 had arrived at a certain size in the ovarium ; " and he instances 

 the fact in the case of a domestic hen, which, on being removed 

 from one location to another, ceased laying, although she had 

 already commenced depositing her eggs ; and also in another, 

 that had had her leg accidentally broken. " If the peewit is 

 deprived of only one egg after she has completed her number, 

 she immediately forsakes the nest : if, however, she has but 

 one other to lay, and all but one of her eggs are removed, 

 she will continue to lay for ten or twelve days or more. The 

 same has been observed of the blackbird, lark, and long- 

 tailed titmouse : the latter has gone on to lay as many as 

 thirty eggs before she began to sit." {Jesse, p. 191.) To these 

 facts I must now add my own observations. Requiring the 

 eggs of the brown owl, I desired a neighbouring farmer to 

 procure them for me; but, before they reached me, they 

 were destroyed. In about three weeks afterwards, the same 

 owl had laid two other eggs in the same nest. A thrush's 

 nest was discovered, on a Saturday, with one egg in it; and, 

 on Sunday, it was robbed and destroyed. On Monday, a 

 new nest was constructed, but very imperfectly, and one egg 

 laid in it. During the whole of Tuesday there was no addi- 

 tional egg ; but, on Wednesday evening, there were three. 

 These facts do not appear to accord [Do not those on the 

 brown owl quite accord ?] with Montagu's statements as to 

 the number of eggs in the second laying, nor as to the time 

 in which a bird is forced to bring forth her eggs in succes- 

 sion. A friend of mine has some pheasants in captivity ; and 

 two hens laid, in one season, ninety-two eggs. Again : a wren, 

 under my own observation, built her nest three several times 

 in the same hole, in a bank ; but no sooner was it constructed 

 Vol. VII. — No. 40. z 



