first, that their hogs fatten more kindly at such times, 

 and the latter, that their rabbits are never in such 

 good case as in a gentle frost. But when frosts are 

 severe, and of long continuance, the case is soon al- 

 tered ; for then a want of food soon overbalances the 

 repletion occasioned by a checked perspiration. I 

 have observed, moreover, that some human constitu- 

 tions are more inclined to plumpness in winter than 

 in summer. 



When birds come to suffer by severe frost, I find 

 that the first that fail and die are the redwing, field- 

 fares, and then the song-thrushes. 



You wonder, with good reason, that the hedge- 

 sparrows, &c. can be induced at all to sit on the egg 

 of the cuckoo without being scandalized at the vastly 

 disproportioned size of the supposititious egg; but 

 the brute creation, I suppose, have very little idea of 

 size, colour, or number. For the common hen, as I 

 know, when the fury of incubation is on her, will 

 sit on a single shapeless stone instead of a nest 

 full of eggs that have been withdrawn : and, more- 

 over, a hen-turkey, in the same circumstances, 

 would sit on in the empty nest till she perished with 

 hunger. 



I think the matter might easily be determined 



whether a cuckoo lays one or two eggs, or more, in 



a season, by opening a female during the laying-time. 



If more than one was come down out of the ovary, 



and advanced to a good size, doubtless then she 



130 



