Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/287

 quite dark. Full of play and lasciviousness, it would frequently sit in its mistress's lap, where it loved to have her scratch its head and stroke its back, upon which, fluttering with its wings and making a gentle noise, it testified the pleasure it expe- rienced. I believed all this to proceed from his usual fami- liarity and love of being noticed ; for I always regarded the creature as a male, by reason of his proficiency in talking and singing. For among birds, the females rarely sing or challenge one another by their note ; the males alone solace their mates by their tuneful warblings, and call them to the rites of love. And it is on this account that Aristotle says/ " If partridges be placed over against the males, and the wind blow towards them from where the males sit, they are impregnated and con- ceive. They even for the most part conceive from the note of the male bird, if they be in season and full of desire. The flight of the male over them will also have the same effect, the male bird casting down a fertilizing influence upon the female." Now this happens especially in the spring season, whence the poet sings : 2

Earth teems in Spring, and craves the genial seed.

The almighty father, ^Ether, then descends,

In fertilizing showers, into the lap

Of his rejoicing spouse, and mingling there

In wide embrace sustains the progeny

Innumerous that springs. The pathless woods

Then ring with the wild hird's song, and flocks and herds

Disport and spend the livelong day in love.

Not long after the caressings mentioned, the parrot, which had lived in health for many years, fell sick, and by and by being seized with repeated attacks of convulsions, seated in the lap of its mistress, it expired, grievously regretted. Having opened the body in search of the cause of death, I discovered an egg, nearly perfect, in the uterus, but in consequence of the want of a male, in a state of putrefaction ; and this, indeed, frequently happens among birds confined in cages, which show desire for the company of the male.

These and other instances induce me to believe that the

1 Hist, Anim. lib. v, cap. 5, et lib. vi, cap. 2. * Virgil, Georg. 2.