270 THE UNIVERSE. 



says this traveller.^ The male is equally called upon to 

 make up for the indolence of his mate ; he broods also : a 

 nurse of the opposite sex. 



The long-eared owls {Strix hiibo, Linnaius), and the great 

 owls {Strix otiis, Linnaeus), are scarcely more interested in 

 their nidification. Almost all these nocturnal idlers simply 

 deposit their eggs upon the dust which time has accumu- 

 lated in the nooks of rocks or caverns; others install them- 

 selves in ruined chateaux or churches; some content them- 

 selves with the holes afforded by the decaying trunks of 

 aged trees. The barn-owl {Strix flammea, Linnaeus), a 

 little less careless, before laying, covers Avith a thin mat- 

 tress of moss the bare stone of the obscure underground 

 retreat in the depths of which she rears a brood so afraid 

 of the light. 



The birds of the tribe of our quails, partridges, and hens 

 are all very clumsy workmen, contenting themselves with 

 exposing their broods on miserable litter, or on the arid 

 soil itself. The beautiful doves themselves scarcely take 

 more care of their progeny. Their nests, negligently placed 

 on the boughs, are only formed of a thin sheet of loosely 

 laid tAvigs, a complete hurdle in disorder, without any moss 

 or down, in which the egg, ex2:)osed to the air on all sides, 

 seems menaced every instant Avitli the danger of falling. 

 It is the handiwork of a thoughtless beauty, AAdiose couch 

 seems as if it Avould be more likely to freeze than warm 

 her young family. 



1 The traveller Levaillant counted as many as thirty-eight eggs in an ostrich's 

 nest, which leads to the inference that several females were concerned in laying 

 them. His observations and those of Sparmann prove that the males take upon 

 themselves the duty of incubation. Both these travellers surprised males on the 

 nests ; and the latter of the two saw as many traces of the one sex as of the other 

 at these places, showing that they are equally frequented by males and females. 



