104 
the less prolific herbivora, seems to be jointly attri- 
butable to mutual destruction of the former, and to 
human protection of the latter, coupled with abun- 
dant supply of vegetable food. The ruminating 
animals are generally bad providers of shelter for 
their young; they seek no shelter, and they make 
no nest. Hoofs are less suited than claws to nidifi- 
cation. Beasts of prey are doubly careful in this 
respect ; the female, fearing the fury of the male 
against her young, secretes her brood from his 
knowledge with especial care. The care of apes 
and many monkeys for their young, is a subject of 
frequent narrative. Foxes, cats, rabbits, mice, hedge- 
hogs, are notoriously careful in providing secret shel- 
ter for their progeny. Indeed almost all carnivora, 
and almost all rodentia, the hare being the worst 
provider among the latter. 
Amongst birds, the most powerful and rapacious 
lay rarely more than two eggs, most eagles only one, 
and protect their young by choosing the most inac- 
cessible rocks, Alpine peaks, and lofty summits of 
forest trees most remote from the haunts of men. 
Their nests are coarsely constructed. Owls lay from 
two to four eggs", in hollow trees and rifts of ivied 
towers. The lanius, approaching to the insectivorous 
4 «The brown or tawny owl, strix aluco, breeds in the hollows 
of trees, and sometimes in barns; which last it frequents for the 
sake of mice, being a better mouser than the cat. It prepares 
very little nest, and sometimes deposits its eggs on the decayed 
wood, which are two in number, rarely three.” Montague’s Or- 
nith. Dict. 
