538 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTOET. [Book X. 



barren eggs, from which nothing is produced. By the Greeks, 

 these eggs are called " hypenemia. 30 



(59.) The pea-hen produces at three years old. In the 

 first year she will lay one or two eggs, in the next four or 

 five, and in the remaining years twelve, but never beyond 

 that number. She lays for two or three days at intervals, and 

 will produce three broods in the year, if care is taken to put 

 the eggs under a common hen. The males are apt to break 

 the eggs in getting at the females while sitting, and hence it 

 is that the pea-hen lays by night, and in secret places, or else 

 sits on her eggs in an elevated spot ; the eggs will break, too, 

 unless they are received upon some surface that is soft. One 

 male is sufficient for every five females ; when there are only- 

 one or two females to a male, all chance of their being prolific 

 is spoilt through their extreme salaciousness. The young 

 breaks the shell in twenty-seven days, or, at the very latest, 

 on the thirtieth. 



Geese pair in the water, and lay in spring ; or, if they 

 have paired in the winter, they lay about forty eggs, after the 

 summer solstice. The hatching takes place twice in the year, 

 if a hen hatches the first brood ; otherwise, their greatest num- 

 ber of eggs will be sixteen, their lowest seven. If their eggs 

 are taken away from them, they will keep on laying until they 

 burst ; they will not hatch the eggs of any other birds. The 

 best number of eggs for placing under the goose for hatching, 

 is nine, or else eleven. The females only sit, and that for 

 thirty days ; but if they are kept very warm, then only twenty- 

 five. The contact of the nettle is fatal to their young, and 

 their own greediness is no less so sometimes, through over- 

 eating, and sometimes through over- exertion ; for seizing the 

 root of a plant with the bill, they will make repeated efforts 

 to tear it out of the ground, and so, at last, dislocate the 

 neck. A remedy against the noxious effects of the nettle, is to 

 place the root of that plant under the straw of their nest. 



(60.) There are three kinds of herons, called, respectively, 

 the leucon, 31 the asterias, 32 and the pellos. 33 These birds ex- 

 perience great pain in coupling ; uttering loud cries, the males 



30 Or " wind" eggs. See cc. 75 and 80. 



31 The white heron. 



32 So called from its soaring towards the stars. 



33 The tawny or black heron. 



