216 



forth live young, is a clear argument of Divine Pro- 

 viden.ce, designing their preservation thereby. For if 

 they had been viviparous, had they brought any num- 

 ber at a time, the burden of their womb must have" 

 been so great and heavy, that their wings would have 

 failed, and they become an easy prey to their enemies. 

 And had they borne but one at a time,they would have 

 been bearing all the year e 



2. Since it would have been many ways inconvenient 

 to birds to give suck, and yet inconvenient if not de- 

 structive to the new-born chick, to pass suddenly from 

 liquid t<5 hard food, before the stomach was strengthen. 

 ed and able to digest it, and before the bird was ac. 

 customed to use its bill, and gather it up, which it 

 docs at first very slowly and imperfectly ; therefore 

 nature has provided in every egg a large yolk, which 

 serves the chicken a considerable time instead of milk. 

 Mean time it feeds by the mouth a little at a time, and 

 that more and more, till the stomach is strengthened 

 to digest it. 



3. Birds that feed their young in the nest, though 

 they bring but one morsel at a time^ arid have perhaps 

 seven or eight, which all at once, with equal greedi- 

 ness, hold up their heads and gape tor it; yet 

 never mistake, never omit one, but feed them all by 

 turns. 



4. Though birds cannot number, yet they are able 

 to distinguish many from few ; and when they have 

 laid as many eggs as they can cover, they give over, 

 and begin to sit. Yet they are not determined to such 

 a number : they can go on and lay more at their plea- 

 sure. Hens, for instance, if you let their eggs alone, 

 lay fourteen or fifteen, and give over; but if you with, 

 draw their eggs daily, they will goon to lay five times 

 that number. T ! ,, , holds not only in domestic birds, 

 but also in the \viid. A swallow, when her eggs were 

 withdrawn daily, proceeded to lay nineteen. 



