42 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



PART VII. 



THE hen which was induced, good easy Dam 

 Partlet, to bestow her maternal affection upon a 

 egg of the wedge-tailed eagle, laid in the garde 

 of the Zoological Society, was it will be in th 

 remembrance of those who amuse themselves b 

 looking into these simple annals " left sitting.' 

 The first egg was laid on the 27th of February 

 in this year, and was, it will be recollected, place 

 under a common hen, but was removed after th 

 expiration of twenty-one days, in an addled state 

 The second egg that on which the hen wa 

 left sitting at our last notice was laid in the firs 

 week of March, and was removed, after a patien 

 incubation of twenty-two days, addled also. 



On the 29th of March a third egg was produced 

 but it was destroyed by the parents. 



April 4. Another egg was this day laid, bu 

 no attempt was made to get it hatched. 



The imprisoned parents made a poor apologi 

 for a nest of birch-broom and straw the materials 

 within their reach ; but, instead of manifestin 

 any intention to do the parental office, the birds 

 wanted to destroy every one of the eggs, and the 

 keeper found it necessary to look very sharp to 

 prevent them from carrying their ovicidal propen 

 sities into effect. 



This reversal of the great law of nature is no. 

 confined to birds. The sow and the rabbit, if dis- 

 turbed at the critical moment, will not unfrequent- 

 ly devour their offspring as those know to their 

 cost, whose impatience has brought their prying 

 eyes to look into the mystery. We forget that, 

 in their natural state, the first care of all verte- 

 brated animals is to hide their eggs or young. 

 The same may be said of insects, crustaceans, and 

 even of molluscous animals. In proportion as the 

 organization is developed, the sensitiveness to the 

 violation of this principle increases. The quad- 

 ruped, in a state of morbid irritation, devours its 

 young ; the bird forsakes its nest, or destroys the 



When, however, this great operation of nature 

 is effected in secrecy, and the storge of the parents 

 is unchecked, the vertebrata, and especially the 

 more highly-developed classes, will risk anything 

 short of life for the protection of their young, and 

 not unfrequently will lay that down in defence of 

 their offspring. 



In cases of extreme urgency, gregarious quad- 

 rupeds dispose of their young with the most pa- 

 rental care, placing them in the middle, so that 

 when the battle rages they may have the best 

 chance of safety. Thus, by the divine law, pres- 

 ervation follows generation, and is most conspic- 

 uously manifested while the offspring is of tender 

 age, and unable to provide for its own support. 

 Among the mammiferous animals, a reciprocity of 

 benefits is established, and it may be doubted 

 whether the mother or the child feels the greatest 

 enjoyment in imparting or receiving the full tide 

 of maternal nourishment. Even that grand in- 



carnate fiend, Lady Macbeth, is compelled to 

 say , 



I have given sucke, and know 

 How tender 'tis to love the babe that milkes me.* 



Moreover, a sort of instinctive distributive justice 

 is established in the breast of the mother, when 

 the case requires it. Thus, as a general rule, it 

 will be found that an ewe which brings forth two 

 lambs at a time, will not admit one to her teats 

 unless the other be present and partaking ; other- 

 wise one might famish, while the other would 

 grow fat. 



This manifestation, for the most part, suits the 

 tyrant man, and therefore, in all convenient cases, 

 he very blandly suffers nature to take her course. 

 The Laplander cannot afford to be so benevolent. 

 The female reindeer drops her fawn about the 

 middle of May, and gives milk from the end of 

 June to the middle of October. Now few moth- 

 ers are more extremely fond of their young than 

 these does. If they lose one, they seek it every- 

 where, and, if it be to be found, never rest till 

 they have discovered it, The Laplander, there- 

 fore, knows better than to separate the doe from 

 the fawn. Morning and evening the herd is 

 brought up to be milked. A rope, both ends of 

 which are held in the hand of the assistant, is cast 

 over the neck of the doe, and she is thus com- 

 pelled to submit, giving about a pint. This might 

 seem to be a sufficient fraud upon the poor fawn, 

 >ut no. As soon as the pint is abstracted, the 

 teats of the doe are anointed with a preparation 

 most offensive to the fawn, which thus, notwith- 

 standing its intense disgust, gets just enough to 

 reserve life, and no more, and leaves the poor 

 mother with a comparatively full udder to enrich 

 he dairy of her honest master. 



All animals of a high grade show the greatest 

 distress if their young are taken from them, and 

 will, if necessary, fight stoutly in their defence. 

 r n that most revolting case of the vivisection of a 

 >oor bitch, she endeavored to lick her puppies in 

 he midst of her tortures, and when they were 

 emoved, uttered the most plaintive cries. 



The crew of the discovery-ship Carcass, sent 

 ti an exploring voyage to the North Pole, in the 

 ast century, witnessed a most touching instance 

 f maternal affection, which seems, however, to 

 ave had no effect on the hearts of some of those 

 who beheld it. 



The ship was locked in the ice, and, early one 

 morning, the man at the mast-head gave notice 

 lat three bears were approaching over the frozen 

 ea, invited, doubtless, by the scent of some blub- 

 er of a walrus, killed by the crew a few days 

 efore, which had been set on fire, and was burn- 

 ng on the ice. The visitors proved to be a she- 

 car and her two cubs, the latter nearly as large 

 s the dam. They ran eagerly to the fire, drew 

 way part of the flesh of the walrus that remained 

 nconsumed, and devoured it. Then the crew 



* Folio. 



