ON GENERATION. 181 



lying over against each other, the superior of the two covering 

 and concealing the inferior, which is puckered together. The 

 superior labium, or velabrum, as it is called, arises from the root 

 of the rump, and as the upper eyelid covers the eye, so does this 

 cover the three orifices of the pudenda, viz. the anus, the uterus, 

 and the ureters, which lie concealed under the velabrum as 

 under a kind of prepuce ; very much as in the pudenda of the 

 woman we have the orifice of the vulva and the meatus urinarius 

 concealed between the labia and the nymphae. So that without 

 the use of the knife, or a somewhat forcible retraction of the 

 velabrum in the fowl, neither the orifice by which the faeces pass 

 from the intestines, nor that by which the urine issues from the 

 ureters, nor yet that by which the egg escapes from the uterus, 

 can be perceived. And as the two excrementitious discharges 

 (the urine and the faeces) are expelled together as from a 

 common cloaca, the velabrum being raised at the time, and 

 the respective outlets exposed; so, during intercourse, the hen 

 on the approach of the cock uncovers the vulva, and prepares 

 for his reception, a circumstance observed by Fabricius in the 

 turkey hen when she is eager for the male. I have myself ob- 

 served a female ostrich, when her attendant gently scratched 

 her back, which seemed to excite the sexual appetite, to lie 

 down on the ground, lift up the velabrum, and exhibit and 

 protrude the vulva, seeing which the male, straightway inflamed 

 with a like cestrum, mounted, one foot being kept firm on the 

 ground, the other set upon the back of the prostrate female ; 

 the immense penis (you might imagine it a neat's tongue !) 

 vibrated backwards and forwards, and the process of intercourse 

 was accompanied with much ado in murmuring and noise 

 the heads of the creatures being at the same time frequently 

 thrust out and retracted and other indications of enjoyment. 

 Nor is it peculiar to birds, but common to animals at large, 

 that, wagging the tail and protruding the genital parts, they 

 prepare for the access of the male. And, indeed, the tail 

 in the majority of animals has almost the same office as the ve- 

 labrum in the common fowl; unless it were raised or drawn 

 aside, it would interfere with the discharge of the faeces and the 

 access of the male. 



In the female red-deer, fallow-deer, roe, and others of the 

 more temperate animals, there is a corresponding protection to 



