312 ON GENERATION. 



to enlarge and become conspicuous in the very situation to 

 which they transfer their fecundating influence, viz. the prse- 

 cordia. This is remarkable in fishes, birds, and the whole race 

 of oviparous animals ; the males of which teem with fecundating 

 seminal fluid at the same precise seasons as the females become 

 full of eggs. 



Whatever parts of the hen, therefore, are destined by nature 

 for purposes of generation, viz. the ovary, the infundibulum, 

 the processus uteri, the uterus itself, and the pudenda; as also 

 the situation of these parts, their structure, dimensions, tem- 

 perature, and all that follows this ; all these, I say, are either 

 subordinate to the production and growth of the egg, or to in- 

 tercourse and the reception of fecundity from the male ; or, for 

 the sake of parturition, to which they conduce either as prin- 

 cipal and convenient means, or as means necessary, and with- 

 out which what is done could not be accomplished ; for nothing 

 in nature's works is fashioned either carelessly or in vain. In 

 the same way all the parts in the cock are fashioned subordinate 

 to the preparation or concoction of the spermatic fluid, and its 

 transference to the hen. 



Now those males that are so vigorously constituted as to 

 serve several females are larger and handsomer, and in the 

 matter of spirit and arms excel their females in a far greater 

 degree than the males of those that live attached to a single 

 female. Neither the male partridge, nor the crow, nor the 

 pigeon, is distinguished from the female bird in the same de- 

 cided way as the cock from his hens, the stag from his does, &c. 



The cock, therefore, as he is gayer in his plumage, better 

 armed, more courageous and pugnacious, so is he replete with 

 semen, and so apt for repeated intercourse, that unless he have 

 a number of wives he distresses them by his frequent assaults ; 

 he not only invites but compels them to his pleasure, and leaping 

 upon them at inconvenient and improper seasons, (even when 

 they are engaged in the business of incubation) and wearing 

 off the feathers from their backs, he truly does them an injury. 

 I have occasionally seen hens so torn and worn by the ferocious 

 addresses of the cock, that with their backs stript of feathers 

 and laid bare in places, even to the bone, they languished 

 miserably for a time and then died. The same thing also 

 occurs among pheasants, turkeys, and other species. 



