ON GENERATION. 187 



quite dark. Full of play and lasciviousness, it would frequently 

 sit in its mistress's lap, where it loved to have her scratch its 

 head and stroke its back, upon which, fluttering with its wings 

 and making a gentle noise, it testified the pleasure it expe- 

 rienced. I believed all this to proceed from his usual fami- 

 liarity and love of being noticed ; for I always regarded the 

 creature as a male, by reason of his proficiency in talking and 

 singing. For among birds, the females rarely sing or challenge 

 one another by their note ; the males alone solace their mates 

 by their tuneful warblings, and call them to the rites of love. 

 And it is on this account that Aristotle says/ " If partridges 

 be placed over against the males, and the wind blow towards 

 them from where the males sit, they are impregnated and con- 

 ceive. They even for the most part conceive from the note of 

 the male bird, if they be in season and full of desire. The 

 flight of the male over them will also have the same effect, the 

 male bird casting down a fertilizing influence upon the female." 

 Now this happens especially in the spring season, whence the 

 poet sings : 2 



Earth teems in Spring, and craves the genial seed. 



The almighty father, ^Ether, then descends, 



In fertilizing showers, into the lap 



Of his rejoicing spouse, and mingling there 



In wide embrace sustains the progeny 



Innumerous that springs. The pathless woods 



Then ring with the wild hird's song, and flocks and herds 



Disport and spend the livelong day in love. 



Not long after the caressings mentioned, the parrot, which 

 had lived in health for many years, fell sick, and by and by 

 being seized with repeated attacks of convulsions, seated in 

 the lap of its mistress, it expired, grievously regretted. Having 

 opened the body in search of the cause of death, I discovered 

 an egg, nearly perfect, in the uterus, but in consequence of the 

 want of a male, in a state of putrefaction ; and this, indeed, 

 frequently happens among birds confined in cages, which show 

 desire for the company of the male. 



These and other instances induce me to believe that the 



1 Hist, Anim. lib. v, cap. 5, et lib. vi, cap. 2. * Virgil, Georg. 2. 



