LECTURE VII. 316 



day following his transformation, he is sent 

 off with the swarm to participate in its 

 provident industry. 



In his paper on the secretion from the 

 crops of brooding pigeons, he observes, 

 that it is not alone in the class mammalia, 

 that Nature has ordained the parent to 

 supply nourishment to the young from its 

 own body, for that pigeons feed their 

 young with a secretion from their crops, 

 which they bring up and project into the 

 throats of their offspring. This secretion 

 does not take place except at the required 

 time, and it occurs chiefly in the male bird, 

 to which the office of feeding the young is 

 principally allotted. We account for the 

 secretion of milk in the breasts of females, 

 from their sympathetic connection with the 

 other sexual organs, but the fact just men- 

 tioned cannot be accounted for in this 

 manner, nor, indeed, upon any law of ne- 

 cessity. Mr. Hunter, whose habit it was 

 to think upon every subject, seems inclined 

 to attribute it to a feeling of fondness ; for 

 he observes, that the male bird acts in the 



