220 



The embryo is seen at first like a small worm, 

 Then its carina or spine appears, with the large pro. 

 minences that afterwards shew themselves to be the 

 brain and eyes. The other bowels seem hanging 

 from the spine. Then the chasm of the mouth is dis- 

 covered. The extremities sprout out. The bowels 

 are gradually covered with the teguments. At last 

 the beak, nails, and feathers are seen. When all 

 its parts are formed, the chick is always found lying 

 on its side, with its neck bent forward, the head co- 

 vered with the upper wing, and the beak placed be- 

 tween the thighs. 



The birds which nourish their young, have com. 

 monly very few. On the contrary, those whose young 

 feed themselves, when they first see the day, have 

 sometimes eighteen or twenty at a brood. This pru- 

 dence could only spring from Him, who regulates all 

 things to the best advantage. Were those who pro- 

 vide for their young to have so numerous a brood, 

 both the parents would be slaves, and yet the young 

 but ill accommodated. Whereat the mother, who 

 only marches at their head, without nourishing them, 

 can conduct twenty as well as four. 



But when they first make their appearance, what 

 care do the parents take, till their young can sub- 

 sist without them ? Of those that feed their young, 

 the linnet and the nightingale then labour like the 

 rest* Sometimes one parent goes in quest of pro- 

 visions, sometimes the other, and sometimes both. 

 They are up before the sun. And the food they have 

 procured, they distribute with great equality, giving 

 each a portion in its turn; before ever they feed one 

 bird twice. 



And this tenderness for their offspring, is so strong, 

 as even to change their natural disposition. Follow 

 the hen when she is the parent of a family, and she 

 is no longer the same creature. She is no longer ra. 



