PAIRING. 139 
forcing the grubs and worms so deep into it as to 
be out of reach, while, the operations of plough- 
ing and digging having almost ceased, they have 
little aid from the labours of man. In such cases 
it has been remarked, that “the constant clamour 
of the young for food, so unusual in nestling birds, 
renders it manifest that the labours and exertions 
of the parents cannot supply a sufficiency for their 
requirements.”* If, then, the difficulty is so consid- 
erable when both parents conjoin their labours, it 
may be inferred that it would, even in ordinary cir- 
cumstances, be too much for the female alone, more 
particularly as her energies must be somewhat im- 
paired by the previous fatigue undergone in the 
process of hatching. During this process the aid 
of the male is no less indispensable than in feeding 
the young. 
It is obvious, that while the hen has to sit for a 
number of days in order to hatch her eggs, and can- 
not, as we shall afterward see, leave them for many 
minutes without incurring the risk of destroying 
the embryo chicks, she must either run this hazard 
or perish of hunger, unless she had food brought to 
her. This, indeed, may be considered as almost the 
commencement of the labours of the male bird; 
for, though he helps a little in the building of the 
nest, he does not work at it with the unwearied as- 
siduity of the female. In the instance of the ca- 
pocier (Sylvia macroura), Vaillant tells us that he 
observed the female to be much more active and 
anxious about the building than the male, even 
punishing him for being frolicksome and idle by 
pecking. him with her beak; while, in revenge, he 
would sometimes set about pulling portions of the 
nest to pieces. 
Independently, then, of assisting to build the nest, 
the female evidently could not well perform her 
* Journal ofa Naturalist, p. 259, 3d edition. 
