EFFECTS OF FROST ON ANIMALS. 117 



gentle check which the cold throws upon insensible 

 perspiration. The case is just the same with black- 

 birds, &c. ; and farmers and warreners observe, the 

 first, that their hogs fat more kindly at such times ; 

 and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such 

 good case as in a gentle frost. But, when frosts are 

 severe and of long continuance, the case is soon al- 

 tered ; for then a want of food soon overbalances 

 the repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. 

 I have observed, moreover, that some human consti- 

 tutions are more inclined to plumpness in winter 

 than in summer. 



When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find 

 that the first that fail and die are the red-wing field- 

 fares, and then the song-thrushes. 



You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge- 

 sparrows, &c., can be induced at all to sit on the egg 

 of the cuckoo, without being scandalized at the vast 

 disproportioned size of the supposititious egg ; but 

 the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of 

 size, colour, or number*. For, the common hen, I 

 know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will sit 

 on a single shapeless stone, instead of a nest full of 

 eggs that have been withdrawn ; and, moreover, a 

 hen turkey, in the same circumstances, would sit on, 

 in the empty nest, till she perished with hunger. 



I think the matter might easily be determined 

 whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in 

 a season, by opening a female during the laying time. 

 If more than one were come down out of the ovary, 

 and advanced to a good size, doubtless, then, she 

 would that spring lay more than one. 



* By a wise provision of nature, and to prevent the very cir- 

 cumstance which Mr. White here notices, we find the egg of the 

 cuckoo scarcely larger than that of the common chaffinch. W. J. 

 . Bat the young cuckoo is, beyond all doubt, larger than the birds 

 that are usually found in the same nest. W. C. T. 



