THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 257 



male is equally called upon to make up for the indolence 

 of his mate ; he sits upon the eggs also : a nurse of the 

 opposite sex. 



The long-eared owls (Strix bubo, Linn.) and the great 

 owls (Strix otus, Linn.) are scarcely more interested in 

 their nidification. Almost all these nocturnal idlers simply 

 deposit their eggs upon the dust which time has accumu- 

 lated in the nooks of rocks or caverns ; others install them- 

 selves in ruined chateaux or churches ; some content them- 

 selves with the holes afforded by the decaying trunks of 

 aged trees. The barn-owl (Strix flammea, Linn.), a little less 

 careless, before laying, covers with a thin layer of moss 

 the bare stone of the obscure vault in the depths of which 

 she rears a brood that dread the light. 



The birds of the tribe to which quails, partridges, and 

 hens belong are all very clumsy workmen, contenting them- 

 selves with exposing their broods on miserable litter, or on 

 the arid soil itself. The beautiful doves themselves scarcely 

 take more care of their progeny. Their nests, negligently 

 placed on the boughs, consist of a platform of loosely laid 

 twigs, without moss or down, in which the egg, exposed to 

 the air on all sides, seems every instant in danger of falling. 

 It is the handiwork of a thoughtless beauty, whose couch 

 seems as if it would be more likely to freeze than warm her 

 young family. 



We find more extent but not more intelligence in the 



nest, which leads to the inference that several females were concerned in laying 

 them. His observations and those of Sparmann prove that the males take upon 

 themselves the duty of incubation. Both these travellers surprised males on the 

 nests; and the latter of the two saw as many traces of the one sex as of the other 

 at these places, showing that they are equally frequented by males and females. 



