NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 17 



not been hatched from some other cause. But here she 

 continued to sit more than double the usual time without 

 moving excej)t for the purpose of taking food. Might it 

 not be that she felt that life was in progi'ess under her, 

 and that her aioqyr, (storge) prevailed with her not to 

 abandon the embryo till the fulness of its time was 

 come ?* 



Again I observed that she made no attempt to solicit 

 the young condor to feed, as hens do with their own 

 chickens. She seemed to regard it as something incom- 

 prehensible, but belonging to her ; and looked on with 



* ' We cannot but admire with Harvey,' says Williiglibj^ 

 ' some of these natural instincts of birds, viz., that almost all hen- 

 birds should, with such diligence a.nd patience, sit upon their nests 

 night and day for a long time together, macerating and almost 

 starving themselves to death ; that they should expose themselves 

 to such dangers in defence of their eggs ; and if, being constrained, 

 they sometimes leave them a little while, with such earnestness 

 hasten back to them and cover them. Ducks and geese, while 

 they are absent for a little while, diligently cover up their eggs 

 with straw% With what coin-age and magnanimity do even the 

 most cowardly birds defend their eggs, which sometimes are sub- 

 veutaneous and addle, or not their own, or even artificial ones. 

 Stupendous, in truth, is the love of birds to a dull and lifeless egg, 

 and which is not likely with the least profit or pleasiu-e to recom- 

 pense so great pains and care. ^Vlio can but admire the passionate 

 affection, or rather fury, of a clocking hen, which cannot be ex- 

 tinguished unless she be drenched in cold water? During this 

 impetus of mind she neglects all things, and, as if she were in a 

 frenzy, lets down her wings, and bristles up her feathers, and 

 walks up and down reckless and querulous, puts other hens oif 

 their nests, searching everywhere for eggs to sit upon ; neither 

 doth she give over till she hath either found eggs to sit or chickens 

 to bring up ; which she doth with wonderful zeal and passion, call 

 together, cherish, feed, and defend. What a pretty ridiculous 

 spectacle is it to see a hen following a bastard brood of young 

 ducklings (which she hath hatched for her own) swimming in the 

 water ? How she often compasses the place, sometimes venturing 

 in, not without danger, as far as she can wade, and calls upon 

 them, using all her art and industry to allure them to her.' 



