138 ' THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. j~J?. VI, 



BOOK THE SIXTH. 



CHAPTER I. 



1. TEE above describes the manner of reproduction in ser- 

 pents, insects, and oviparous quadrupeds. All birds are 

 oviparous, but the season of sexual intercourse and of bring- 

 ing out their young is not the same in all ; for some copu- 

 late and produce eggs at all seasons, as we may say, as the 

 domestic fowl and the pigeon, for the domestic fowl lays 

 eg^s all the year round, except two months at the winter 

 solstice. Some of the finest birds will lay sixty eggs before 

 they want to sit, though these are not so fruitful as the 

 more common kinds. The Adrianic fowls are very small, 

 but they lay every day ; bu-t they are cruel, and often kill 

 their chickens. Their colour is variegated. Some of the 

 domestic birds lay twice a-day, and some have been known 

 to lay so many eggs that they died very soon. 



2. The domestic fowls, as I said, lay continually ; but the 

 pigeon, dove, trygon, and osnas lay twice a-year ; and the 

 pigeon ten times. The greatest number of birds lay in the 

 spring ; and some of them produce many young, and this in 

 two ways ; some producing their young often, as the pigeon ; 

 others producing .many at a time, as the domestic fowl. All 

 birds with crooked claws, except the cenchris, 1 lay but few 

 eggs. This bird lays the most of any of its class ; for it has 

 been observed to produce four, and it even produces more. 

 Some birds ]ay their eggs in nests ; but those that do not 

 fly, as partridges and quails, do not make nests, but lay their 

 eggs on the ground and cover them over with rubbish. The 

 lark and tetrix 2 do the same. 



3. These birds make their nests in a place sheltered from 

 the wind. That which the Beotians call a?rops 3 is the 

 only bird that makes its nests in caverns in the earth. 

 The cichlse 4 make nests of mud like swallows in the tops of 

 trees ; but they place them in order close to each other, so 



1 Falco tinnunculus. 2 Tetrao tetrii or Otis tetrix. 



s Merops apiaster. 4 Turdus, thrush. 



