SECT. XVI. 13. 3. OF INSTINCT. I3 r 



For many other curious kinds of nefts fee Natural IJiftory for 

 Children, by Mr. Gallon. Johnfton. London. Part I. p. 47. 

 Gen. Oriolus. 



3. Thofe birds that are brought up by our care, and have had 

 little communication with others of their own fpecies, are very 

 defective in this acquired knowledge ; they are not only very 

 awkward in the conftruclion of their nefts, but generally fcatter 

 their eggs in various parts of the room or cage, where they are 

 confined, and feldom produce young ones, till, by failing in their 

 firft attempt, they have learnt fomething from their own obfer- 

 vation. 



4. During the time of incubation birds are faid in general to 

 turn their eggs every day ; fome cover them, when they leave 

 the neft, as ducks and geele ; in fome the male is faid to bring 

 food to the female, that (he may have lefs occafion of abfence, 

 in others, he is faid to take her place, when {lie goes in queft of 

 food ; and all of them are faid to leave their eggs a fhorter time 

 in cold weather than in warm. In 'Senegal the oftrich fits on 

 her eggs only during the night, leaving them in the day to the 

 heat of the fun ; but at the Cape of Good Hope, where the heat 

 is lefs, (lie fits on them day and night. 



If it fhould be aiked what induces a bird to fit weeks on its 

 firil eggs unconfcious that a brood of young ones will be the 

 product ? The anfwer mud be, that it is the fame paflion that 

 induces the human mother to hold her offspring whole nights 

 and days in her fond arms, and prefs it to her bofom, uncon- 

 fcious of its future growth to fenfe and manhood, till obferva- 

 tion or tradition have informed her. 



5. And as many ladies are too refined to nurfe their own 

 children, and deliver them to the care and provifion of others ; 

 fo is there one inftance of this vice in the feathered world. The 

 cuckoo in fame parts of England, as I am well informed by a 

 very diftincl and ingenious gentleman, hatches and educates her 

 young ; whilft in other parts (he builds no neft, but ufes that of 

 fome letter bird, generally either of the wagtail or hedge fpar- 

 row, and depofiting one egg in it, takes no further care of her 

 progeny. 



M. Heriflant thought, that he had difcovered the reafon, why 

 cuckoos do not incubate their own eggs, by having obferved that 

 the crop or ftomach of the cuckoo was placed behind the fter- 

 num, or breaft-booe, and he thence fancied, that this would 

 render incubation difagreeable or impracticable. Hift. de F 

 Acad. Royal. 1752. But Mr. White, in his Natural Hiftory of 

 Selbourn, aflerts, that on diflecting a fern-owl he found the fitu- 

 ition of the crop or ftornach of that bird to be behind the fter- 



num, 



