538 
PLINY'S NATUEAL HISTOET. 
[Book X. 
barren eggs, from which nothing is produced. Ey the Greeks, 
these eggs are called hypenemia.^^ 
(59.) The pea-hen produces at three years old. In the 
first year she will lay one or two eggs, in the next four or 
five, and in the remaining years twelve, but never beyond 
that number. She lays for two or three days at intervals, and 
will produce three broods in the year, if care is taken to put 
the eggs under a common hen. The males are apt to break 
the eggs in getting at the females while sitting, and hence it 
is that the pea-hen lays by night, and in secret places, or else 
sits on her eggs in an elevated spot ; the eggs will break, too, 
unless they are received upon some surface that is soft. One 
male is sufficient for every five females ; when there are only 
one or two females to a male, all chance of their being prolific 
is spoilt through their extreme salaciousness. The young 
breaks the shell in twenty-seven days, or, at the very latest, 
on the thirtieth. 
Geese pair in the water, and lay in spring ; or, if they 
have paired in the winter, they lay about forty eggs, after the 
summer solstice. The hatching takes place twice in the year, 
if a hen hatches the first brood ; otherwise, their greatest num- 
ber of eggs will be sixteen, their lowest seven. If their eggs 
are taken away from them, they will keep on laying until they 
burst ; they will not hatch the eggs of any other birds. The 
best number of eggs for placing under the goose for hatching, 
is nine, or else eleven. The females only sit, and that for 
thirty days ; but if they are kept very warm, then only twenty- 
five. The contact of the nettle is fatal to their young, and 
their own greediness is no less so — sometimes, through over- 
eating, and sometimes through over- exertion ; for seizing the 
root of a plant with the bill, they will make repeated efforts 
to tear it out of the ground, and so, at last, dislocate the 
neck. A remedy against the noxious effects of the nettle, is to 
place the root of that plant under the straw of their nest. 
(60.) There are three kinds of herons, called, respectively, 
the leucon,^^ the asterias,^^ and the pellos.^^ These birds ex- 
perience great pain in coupling ; uttering loud cries, the males 
30 Qr a ^ind" eggs. See cc. 75 and 80. 
^1 The white heron. 
^2 So called from its soaring towards the stars. 
33 The tawny or hlack heron. 
