C *4i 3 



nous, they are in the climate bed: fuited to their wants, and 

 moft favourable to the increafe of their fpecies. The mother 

 bird therefore moft afliduoufly exerts and attends to the great 

 duties of incubation, and rearing her young. Thefe fame birds, 

 however, removed to other climates, often negledl, or feem in- 

 fenfible of this moft providential impulfe, which I conceive to 

 arife from a fuppofition that their neftiings cannot be reared. 



In our own latitudes we find this almoft conftantly with re- 

 gard to pea and Guiney hens, whilft, on the other hand, a duck 

 removed to a tropical climate will feldom hatch her eggs or rear 

 her young. 



A French gentleman, therefore, named Morifette, who for 

 fome years hatched chickens in ovens near Lambeth Marfh, 

 gave me the following account : 



The firft time he went to Batavia, he was at dinner with a 

 large company, when a man came in out of breath, to inform 

 them, that he had found a duck fitting upon her eggs, on which 

 every one but himfelf immediately left the room to fee this un- 

 common fight. After this Mr. Morifette having been employed 

 both by the Englifh, Dutch, French, and Portuguefe, vifited 

 almoft every part of the Eaft Indies, where he found that ducks 

 would not lit for any time, and which is the occafion of the 

 Chinefe (who live fo much upon this bird) making ufe of ovens 

 for this purpofe, and contriving that the young ones mail burft 

 the egg, whilft the gleanings of the rice harveft float upon the 

 water f . 



f I rather fufpecl:, for the fame reafon, that hens do not fit clofe in 

 Egypt, though this moft ufeful of all poultry is admitted to breed well 

 in almoft every climate, and to be an exception to the general obferva- 

 tion Vvhich I have ventured to make. 



To 



