ANIMALS. iiib 



chew the cud, with the various tribes of the venuiii kind, choose 

 some hiding place in the neighbourhood of man. Some dig holes 

 in the ground; some choose the hollow of a tree ; and all the 

 amphibious kinds bring up their young near the water, and ac- 

 custom them betimes to their proper element. 



Thus Nature seems kindly careful for the protection of the 

 meanest of her creatures : but there is one class of quadrupeds 

 that seems entirely left to chance, that no parent stands forth to 

 protect, nor no instructor leads, to teach the arts of subsistence. 

 These are the quadrupeds that are brought forth from the egg, 

 such as the lizard, the tortoise, and the crocodile. The fecun- 

 dity of all other animals compared with these is sterility itself. 

 These bring forth above two Inmdred at a time ; but, as tlie off- 

 spring is more numerous, the parental care is less exerted. 

 Thus the numerous brood of eggs are, without farther solicitude, 

 buried in the warm sands of the shore, and the heat of the sun 

 alone is left to bring them to perfection. To this perfection 

 they arrive almost as soon as disengaged from the shell. Most 

 of them, \\ithout any other guide than instinct, immediately 

 make to the water. In their passage thither, they have number- 

 less enemies to fear. The birds of prey that haunt the shore, 

 the beasts that accidentally come there, and even the animals 

 that give them birth, are known, with a strange rapacity, to thin 

 tlieir numbers as well as the rest. 



But it is kindly ordered by Providence, that these animals 

 which are mostly noxious, should thus have many destroyers : 

 were it not lor this, by their extreme fecundity, they would soon 

 overrun tlie earth, and cumber all our plains with defcrmily. 



