94 REMARKS ON THE 
the Partridge has never been known to breed in 
captivity. 
Ina conversation which I had with Dr. Dalton 
in the summer of 1822, on the force of that im- 
pulse which leads birds to sit upon their eggs with 
so much patience and assiduity, he informed me 
that he had removed hen Redbreasts from their 
nests during the period of incubation, and that, 
upon gently replacing them, they had continued to 
sit as if they had not been disturbed. This experi- 
ment of Dr. Dalton’s, which affords a striking in- 
stance of one of the most constant and powerful 
dictates of nature, self-preservation, being counter- 
acted by a temporary excitation of superior energy, 
I have repeated with the Redbreast, Whinchat, 
Swallow, House-Martin, the Marsh, Cole, and Great 
Titmice, &c., not only when they have been sitting, 
but also when they have had small young ones, and 
almost always with success. 
These examples, to which many more might easily 
be added, will be sufficient, I am persuaded, to con- 
vince every unprejudiced mind that the parental 
affections of the feathered tribes in general, and, 
what is more immediately to the purpose, of the 
Swallow and House-Martin in particular, are power- 
fully excited during the breeding-season. Now, 
what, we may ask, can induce the two. last-named 
species and the Sand-Martin deliberately to consign 
their offspring to a painful and lingering death in 
