CURIOUS QUESTIONS 209 



when this happens ? By what, if any, instinct is he 

 swayed ? If we suppose that the true (rropyr) dates, 

 in the mother's breast, from the hatching of the egg, 

 and the appearance of the formed young, does, now, 

 a similar feeling take possession of the male ? Does 

 he too feel the a-Topyrj^ seeing that the young have 

 been born from the egg, under his breast ? If so, 

 we could understand his subsequent devotion to the 

 young, as shown by his feeding them with the same 

 assiduity as the mother. But what, then, of the 

 mother ? She has been away at this second birth, 

 so that if her psychology would have been affected, 

 in any way, by the act — if it can be called an act — of 

 hatching out the eggs, it ought not to be so affected 

 now ; she should be less a mother, in fact, than the 

 cock. This, however — unless the eggs always are 

 hatched out under the hen — is contradicted by facts, 

 so that it seems plain that whatever special tie there 

 may be between the female bird, as distinct from 

 the male, and the young, must date from the laying 

 of the eggs. But if this be so — and it seems the 

 plain way of nature — what is it that makes the cock 

 bird incubate ? Is he moved by a feeling of the 

 same nature, if weaker, as that which animates the 

 hen, or has he, merely, caught the habit from her ? 

 The fact that some male birds leave the whole duty 

 of incubation to the hen, and yet help to feed the 

 young, seems to point in the latter direction, 

 since imitation might well have acted capriciously, 

 whereas one would suppose that feelings analogous, 

 in their nature, in the two sexes, would show them- 

 selves at the same time. It would, however, be a 

 stronger evidence for imitation, as the cause of the 



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