PHASIANUS, 
63 
heir body are in general more /lender than the males ; 
yet their feathers are broader, and their legs fhorter. Sa¬ 
gacious breeders prefer black hens, becaufe they are more 
prolific than the white, and more eafily efcape the piercing 
fight of the birds of rapine which hover over the farm* yard! 
The domeftic cock is extremely watchful of his females, 
and even filled with inquietude and anxiety; he hardly 
ever lofes fight of them; he leads them, defends them, 
and threatens them with his menaces; collefls them to¬ 
gether when they draggle, and never eats till he has the 
pleafure of feeing them feeding around him. To judge 
fiom the different inflexions of his voice, and the various 
figmficant geftures which he makes, we cannot doubt but 
tbefe are a fpecies of language that ferves to communicate 
ills fentiments. When lie lofes them, he utters his griefs. 
Though as jealous as he is amorous, he abufes not his 
wives,but turns his rage againd bis rivals. When another 
cock is prefented, he allow's no rime for fedufdion ; he 
indantly rufhes forward, his eyes flafhing fire, and his 
feathers bridled, and makes a furious attack on his rival, 
and fights obdinately till one or the other fall, or the in¬ 
terloper leave the field. The defire of poffeffion, ever ex- 
ceffive, not only prompts him to dnve away a rival, but to 
remove the mod inod’enfive obftacles; he beats off and 
fometimes kills the chickens, that he may enjov the 
mother more at his eafe. In this appetite he betrays the 
foie caufe of his furious jealoufy ; but in the midft of a 
iubmiffive feraglio, how can lie apprehend any bounds to 
his gratification ? How ardent ioever be his paflions, he 
feems to be more averle to (hare the pleafures than eager 
to fade them ; and, as liis powers are greater, fo his jea¬ 
loufy is more excufable and better founded, than that of 
other fultans. Like them alfo, he has his favourite female, 
whom lie courts w'ith great adiduity, and on whom lie 
bellows his favours as often nearly as on all the red toge¬ 
ther. What proves that in cocks jealoufy is a paffion 
founded on reflection is, that many of them are perpetu¬ 
ally fighting with each other in the court-yard, while they 
never attack the capons, at lead if thefe are not in the 
liabit of following the hens. 
Kens need not the embrace of the cock to procure 
eggs-, thefe are continually detached from the bunch in 
the ovarium, which grows independent of the union with 
the male. As they enlarge, they acquire maturity, fepa- 
rate from their calyx and pedicle, pafs through the whole 
length of the oviduffus, and in the road affimilate, by a 
certain power that they poffefs, the lymph with which the 
duCt is filled, and form it into their white, their coats, and 
their fliell. There they remain till the fenfible and elaftic 
fibres, being dretched and.dimulated by thefe fubffances, 
which have now become foreign, contract and extrude 
them, the large end being foremoll according to Aridotle. 
Thefe eggs are all that the prolific quality of the female 
can produce alone and unaffifled ; die exudes an organized 
body, indeed, fulceptibleof a kind of life,but not a living 
animal fimilar to the mother, and in its turn capable of 
continuing the race. This requires the union of the 
male, and intimate mixture of the feminal liquors of both 
fexes; blit, when once this has taken place, its effecls are 
durable. Dr. Harvey obferved, that the egg of a hen, 
which had been feparated twenty days from the cock, was 
rot lefs prolific than one laid newly after treading, and 
that the embryo was not on that account more advanced, 
but required the fame length of incubation ; a certain 
proof that heat alone cannot produce or promote the de¬ 
velopment of the chick, but that the egg mull be formed, 
or at leaft placed, where it can perfpire, in order that the 
embryo enclofed may be (ufceptible of incubation; other- 
wife all the eggs which remain in the oviduCt twenty-one 
days after fecundation would hatch, fin'ce they would 
bate the proper time and heat; and, in this cafe, hens 
would he fometimes oviparous, fometimes viviparous. 
The weight of the egg of an ordinary hen is from 765 
to about 1000 grains; and, when boiled hard, the (hell 
and membranes weigh 107 grains, the albumen 515, the 
yolk 273 -. but much difference occurs in tbe relative 
weights of thefe feveral parts. The average weight of the 
conftituent principles of a number of eggs was, for the 
(hell and membranes, jo 6’9 grains; albumen, 604’2 ; 
yolk, 288 - 9< The fpecific gravity of new-laid eggs varies 
from i - o8 to fog. By keeping, eggs lofe in weight fora 
Jong time about § of a grain every twenty-four hours ; 
they grow lighter, owing to a fubftitution of air for water, 
which efcapes. (Phil. Tranf. 1822. Part II.) 
With, refpeft to the external form of the egg, it is too 
well known to need any defcription ; but it is often al¬ 
tered by accidents, which it is eafy to account for from 
the hiftory of the egg itfelf and its formation. It is not 
uncommon to find two yolks included in the fame fhell. 
This happens when two eggs alike formed are detached 
at the fame time from the ovarium, and pafs together 
through the oviduft, forming their white without parting, 
and become invefled with the fame external coat. If by 
any accident, which may eafily be fuppofed, an egg that 
has been fome time difengaged from the ovarium is 
checked in its growth, and, when formed as much as it 
can be, comes within the fphere of action of another vi¬ 
gorous egg, it will coalefce with it, and form an egg with¬ 
in an egg. In the fame manner, we may conceive how a 
pin, or any other fubftance, which has penetrated as far. 
as the oviduCt, will be found inclofed within an egg. 
Some hens lay eggs that have no fhell: whether from 
the defedt of the proper fubltance for forming the fliell, 
or becaufe they are extruded from the oviduCt before tlieit 
complete maturity: thefe never produce chickens; and 
this happens, it is faid, to hens that are too fat. The 
oppofite circumftances occalion the eggs to have too thick 
(hells, or even double (hells. Some retain the pedicle by 
which they are fixed to the ovarium; others are bent 
into the form of a crefcent; others are fliaped like a pear; 
fome have had on their flieiis the impreffions even of a 
fun, a cornet, an eclipfe, or whatever has operated power¬ 
fully on the imagination ; nay, fome have appeared lu¬ 
minous. What has been real in the alterations in the 
(hape of the egg, and the marks on the furface, mull he 
afcribed to the different preffures which it receives while 
the fhell is flill foft and pliant, and yet of fuch a confid¬ 
ence as to retain the imprelTions. It will be more diffi¬ 
cult to account forthe luminous appearanceof fome eggs. 
A German doflur obferved fucli under a white hen which 
had been fecundated, he adds, by a very vigorous cock. 
We cannot decently deny the poffibility of the fact; bur, 
as it is fingle, it would be prudent to repeat the obferva- 
tion before we venture to explain it. 
With regard to the pretended cock’s eggs that have no 
yolk, and include, as the vulgar imagine, a ferpent or 
cockatrice, they are nothing elfe but the immature pro¬ 
ductions of an infant hen, or the lad effort of one ex- 
haulted by exceffive fecundity; or, finally, they are im¬ 
perfect eggs that have loft their yolks in the oviduCt, 
either from accident or from the wrong conformation of 
the parts, but that have flill retained their cords or chulazce, 
which the lovers of the marvellous have fancied to be 
converted into a ferpent. M. de la Peyronie has put this 
beyond all doubt, by the diffeflion of a hen which laid 
fuch eggs; but neither M. de la Peyronie nor Thomas 
Bartholin, who difleeted thefe pretended oviparous cocks, 
could difeover eggs, or ovaria, or any thing analogous. 
Hens lay through the whole year, except the times of 
moulting, which generally lads fix weeks or two months, 
about tbe end of autumn and the beginningof the winter. 
This moulting is nothing but the (bedding of the old 
feathers, which are detached like the old leaves of trees 
and the antlers of dags, being excluded by the growth of 
the new. The cocks alfo fuffer this renovation; and it 
is remarkable that the new feathers fometimes affume .a 
different colour. 
The ordinary fecundity of hens is limited to the laying 
an egg each day. There are fome, it is laid, in Samogitia, 
Malacca, and o|jaer places, that lay twice a-.day. Ariltotle 
mentions 
