842 ORNITHOLOGICAL CRITICISMS. 
distinct perception of the difference between their own eggs and those of other 
birds, the former in all the cases recorded were first rejected. Wild birds will 
frequently hatch 44 strange” eggs, in addition to their own, and appear to take no 
notice of the intruders. At all events I am not aware of their ever being 
excluded.* 
Caged birds often play strange freaks. Those that are naturally unsteady 
sitters, and, I suppose,. 44 deficient in the organ of Philoprogenitiveness,” have a 
sad trick of breaking their eggs, which, once tasted, prove a great temptation in 
future. Fowls, and, yet more, Ducks, eat every particle, including the shell, at 
least in the case of fresh eggs. Now the shells generally disappear as soon as the 
young birds are hatched. Query, are they devoured by the parent, or carried off 
to a distance ? I have known Ducks scatter and disperse all their eggs on the 
thirtieth day of incubation, when the young birds were thrusting their little bills 
through the shells. Such birds are either unsteady sitters, or else too close 
attendance has affected them with a kind of monomania, or 44 temporary insanity.” 
Hens not unfrequently 44 cluck ** when they have but a very remote intention of 
“sitting;” and nothing can be more injudicious, or more likely to disgust them 
of the whole concern, than giving them a nest of eggs before they have fully 
* 4 made up their minds ” as to which course they shall pursue. The best test is 
the usual 44 nest egg.” Canaries are commonly so careless of their eggs—especially 
if they are the first produce—that they will lay them on the bare ground. This 
even occasionally happens to wild birds, from various causes. 
Mr. Patrick Syme, of Edinburgh, who many years ago published a Treatise 
on British Song Birds , thinks that the Canary might be naturalised in our 
climate, having seen a pair flying about at liberty, probably an experiment to 
ascertain if they would breed; and he believes they had built a nest, from their 
being repeatedly observed flying in and out at one spot, on the precipitous bank of 
St. Bernard’s Well, near Edinburgh. I have myself known a Canary live several 
months at liberty in Summer, with the misfortune, too, of having one of its legs 
much injured. What became of it at length, is unknown to me. 
According to that ingenious naturalist, Buffon, the name 44 Petrel” is derived 
from the habit this bird has of keeping its wings sufficiently in motion to prevent 
its feet from sinking, whilst feeding on fat and other greasy substances which 
may happen to be thrown from ships, thus appearing to walk on the water, in 
which it resembles the apostle Peter, who also walked on the water. 44 Mother 
Carey’s Chickens” is likewise a well-known name for this bird among sailors. 
The Editor of the late Col. Montagu’s justly celebrated Ornithological Die - 
*For experiments touching this point, I refer the reader to the Editor’s elegant British Song A 
Birds. 
