CANARY-BIRD. 
125 
fires which then feize her fuddenly, are the 
caufe of her languor, when {he hears fo many 
males finging around her whom the cannot ap- 
proach. The cock, though the caufe of the 
defire and the moft ardent in appearance, re- 
fills better than the female the evils of celiba- 
cy ; he feldom dies of privation, but often of 
excefs. 
Upon the whole, the phyfical temperament 
of the hen Canary-Bird is like that of the fe- 
males of other birds. She can lay eggs without 
any communication with the male, but they are 
addle, and the heat of incubation corrupts in- 
ftead of vivifying them. It has been obfervecl, 
that hens feldom lay eggs if they are totally fe- 
queltercd, and neither hear nor fee the male j 
but when they are excited by the fight of him, 
or by his fong, they lay much more frequently : 
fuch effect have objects, even at a diftance, on 
the powers of fentient beings ^ I cannot better 
conclude this lubjecl than by extracting the fol- 
lowing remarks of a letter from the Honourable 
Daines Barrington to M. Maty on the finging 
of birds : — ■ 
“ Moft people who keep Canary-Birds, do 
u n °t know they fing chielly either the Tit- 
“ Lark or the Nightingale’s notes. 
“ Nothing however can be more marked 
c than the note of a Nightingale, called its 
6 vvhich moft of the Canarv-Birds brought 
L 3 
