ORDER GALLING. 191 



polygamous, in which the hen is obliged occasionally to quit 

 the eggs to seek for food — many in which the cock never 

 feeds either her or the young. The facts cited by M. Par- 

 mentier, from observation on the domestic cock, appear to us 

 to have as little weight as his hypothesis concerning the wild 

 one. If the cock be observed to scrape straw together, and 

 rub himself in it, it is no more than what cocks and hens con- 

 tinually do, in heaps of dust, &c., when they have no thought 

 of incubation, but merely from their pulverating instinct. A 

 strong imagination may see the making of a nest in this 

 operation ; but the probability is, that the cock performs it 

 only to rid himself of the vermin with which he, like other 

 birds, is occasionally annoyed. That he shows a preference 

 to some hens above others, is certain enough ; and also 

 prefers the young and handsome hens, while he cordially 

 detests the old ones. It may even happen, under certain 

 circumstances, that he may attach himself to a single one in 

 preference; but this is only temporary, and very different 

 from the decided choice, and permanent attention to the 

 female, shown by all truly monogamous birds ; besides, we 

 all know how easy it is to magnify facts, which appear to 

 make in favour of a preconceived and cherished theory. 



Cocks and hens, like other organized beings, exhibit, 

 occasionally, monstrous productions, which have drawn the 

 attention of the curious : chickens with two heads, cocks 

 with four feet, &c., have been often seen. A most singular 

 production of this kind is described by M. Schwartz, in a 

 periodical work, printed at Berlin, entitled Brennu, in 1803. 

 " A Jew, in 1802, exhibited for money, at Posen, in 

 Poland, a hen, with a human face, which was hatched in a 

 farm, near Wryesnier, and which he had received in pay- 

 ment of a small debt. He declared, that another chicken, 

 altogether similar, had been in the same brood, but that it 

 died soon after its birth. The animal which he exhibited, 



