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VII. OhfsrvaUons on the Oeconomy of the Ichneumon Manifejlator Linn. 

 By 'Thomas Marjham, Efq. Sec. L, S. 



Read July 2, 1794. 



THROUGHOUT the whole fyftem of animal Ceconomy, there 

 is not perhaps a more ftriking and diftinguifhed feature, than 

 the attention, care and forefight of every parent animal for the 

 prote6lion and prefervation of its young. It is a property which 

 pervades every clafs of animals, and is equally manifefl: in the mofl: 

 ferocious and the more timid, the largeft and the moll minute. 

 The methods employed by each clafs and order differ as much as 

 the animals themfelves. In the higher orders of beings which are 

 viviparous, not to mention the human race, we find this care ex- 

 tended to a confiderable time after the birth of the young, as in 

 quadrupeds, who nourifli their little ones with a delicate nutritious 

 fluid, copioufly fupplied by nature from their own bodies, and with 

 an anxiety and care evidently apparent to the moft common ob- 

 fervcr, until they are able to provide for themfelves. The feather- 

 ed tribes, which are oviparous, furnilh an extraordinary inftance of 

 fortitude and patience during the tedious time of incubation, and of 

 labour and unwearied diligence in fearch of food, after the young are 

 hatched. As we defcend to the lower orders, which are in general 

 .oviparous, we may readily difcern ftrong marks of fagacity or infl:in£l. 



Reptiles 



