Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 1 of 2).djvu/320

 to bury them in dung, covered with earth. And there was a tale in Syracuse, of a drunken fellow, who was accustomed to continue his potations until a number of eggs, placed under a mat bestrewed with earth, were hatched/' The empress Livia, is also said to have carried an egg in her bosom until a chick was produced from it. And in Egypt, and other countries, at the present time, chickens are reared from eggs placed in ovens. " The egg, therefore," as Fabricius 1 truly says, " is not only the uterus, and place where the generation of the chick pro- ceeds, but it is that upon which its whole formation depends; and this the egg accomplishes as agent, as matter, as instru- ment, as place, and as all else that concurs."

For it is certain that the chick is formed by a principle in- herent in the egg, and that nothing accrues to a perfect egg from incubation, beyond the warmth and protection ; in the same way as to the chick when disclosed, the hen gives nothing more than her warmth and her care, by which she defends it from the cold and from injury, and directs it to its proper food. The grand desideratum, therefore, once the chickens are hatched, is that the hen lead them about, seek for and sup- ply them with proper food, and cherish them under her wings. And this you will not easily supply by any kind of artifice.

Capons, and hybrids between the common fowl and the pheasant, produced in our aviaries, will incubate and hatch a set of eggs ; but they never know how to take care of the brood to lead them about properly, and to provide with ade- quate care for their nurture.

And here I would pause for a moment, (for I mean to treat of the matter more fully by and by,) to express my admiration of the perseverance and patience with which the females of almost every species of bird, sit upon the nest for so many days and nights incessantly, macerating their bodies, and almost destroying themselves from want of food; what dangers they will face in defence of their eggs, and when compelled to quit them for ever so short a time, through necessity, with what eagerness and haste they return to them again, and brood over them ! Ducks and geese, when they quit the nest for a few minutes, cover and conceal it with straw. With what true

1 Op. cit. p. 19.