118 ELECTRIC INFLUENCE. 



surface of bodies, and the quantities they are 

 capable of receiving not following the proportion 

 of their bulk, but depending principally on the 

 extent of surface over which it is spread, the 

 exterior of bodies may be partially or negatively 

 electric, while the interior is in a state of perfect 

 neutrality. Under isolation, the quiescent state 

 of the electricity occasions no sensible change 

 in their properties. The power of retaining the 

 electric fluid depending upon the shape, and the 

 sphere and the spheroid retaining it readily, 

 while it escapes from a point, or is received by 

 a point with facility, the enveloping the eggs of 

 birds in dried and non-conducting materials 

 spread entirely and widely round is a means of 

 steadily maintaining a uniform distribution of 

 the electricity, and with it of preserving that 

 state of quiescence, by which no sensible changes 

 are communicated to the embryo within. Thus, 

 at a time when the air is excessively disturbed 

 by explosions of lightning and the shocks of 

 thunder-storms, the business of incubation is 

 carried on in a space completely isolated, and 

 the egg suffers no change of property by the 

 varied electric action that is prevailing in the 

 free atmosphere around." Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1841. 



Here, we think, we have an explanation of the 

 reason why the nests of the Humming-birds, 

 though not domed, are made so deep and so 

 thick, are so closely felted, and are fabricated 



