1. Many animals in their mode of life appear to imitate mankind, and one may observe greater accuracy of intellect in small than in large animals; as the manufacture of its dwelling by the swallow is remarkable among birds; it has the same method of combining chaff with mud, for it mixes the mud with straw, and if mud is not to be found, it dips in the water and rolls itself in the dust; it uses straw in making its nest as men use it, for it places the largest at the bottom, and makes it commensurate with its own bulk; both the male and female labour in support of the young. They feed each in turn, observing by some agreement the one which was first fed that none may receive food twice; at first they turn the dung out of the nest, but as the young birds increase in size, they teach them to turn themselves, so as to eject their excrement out of the nest.
2. There are some observations which may be made on pigeons, for they will not pair with many mates, nor do they forsake their first companion, unless they become widowed. The care and anxiety of the male at the time of parturition are remarkable, for if the pain causes the hen to feel languid when near the nest, he beats her and drives her in. When the young are hatched, the parent provides salt earth, which is injected into the open mouth of the young birds, as a preparation for the reception of food. When it is time for them to leave the nest, the male copulates with them all.
3. In this manner they have usually a great affection for each other. Some females will copulate with males that are not their own mates. This bird is contentious, they fight together, and attack each other's nests, though not frequently, for although they are beaten when at a distance, they will fight to the last when near their nests; it appears to be characteristic of the pigeon, phaps, and turtle not to lean back when they drink, unless they have had sufficient. The turtle and phatta always remain faithful to the same male, and will not permit another to approach them, and the male and female share the labour of incubation. The male and female are not easily distinguished, except by their internal structure.
4. The phatta is long-lived, they have been known to live for twenty-five or thirty years, some even forty years; their claws grow when they become aged, and pigeon breeders cut them off, and in no other respect are they inferior when aged. The turtle and the pigeon, if they have been blinded by those who use them as decoy birds, will live eight years. The partridge lives fifteen years, the phaps and the turtle always build in the same places.
5. On the whole, males also live longer than females, but in these birds they say that the males die before the females; this conclusion is derived from the observation of those which are brought up in houses for decoy birds. Some persons say that cock-sparrows only live for one year, considering this as a proof, that early in the spring there are no birds with black beneath the chin; but they have it afterwards, as if none of the former birds had survived. The hen-sparrows have a longer life, for these are taken among the young birds, and are easily known by the hard portion about their bills. The turtle lives during the summer in cold places, and during the winter in warm places. The finch lives during the summer in warm places, and in cold places during winter.
Chapter IX.
1. The heavy birds do not make nests, for it does not agree with their mode of flight, as the quail, partridge, and all such birds; but when they have made a hole in the smooth ground (for they never produce their young in any other place), they collect together some thorns and sticks for a defence against the hawks and eagles, and there lay their eggs and incubate. As soon as the young are hatched, they lead them out, because their slow flight prevents them from procuring food for them. The quail and partridge shelter their young under their wings, like the domestic fowl.
2. They do not lay and incubate in the same place, lest any one should discover the place while they sat there for a long while; and when any one in hunting falls upon the nest, the partridge halts before him, as if she could be taken, and draws him after her in the hopes of capture, until all the young ones have had time to escape, and after she flies back and recalls them to their nest. The partridge does not lay less than ten eggs, and often sixteen. As it has been already observed, it is a bird of an evil and cunning disposition. In the spring they separate with singing and fighting into pairs with the females which each may happen to take. The partridge being a bird of violent passions, it tries to prevent the female from incubation by rolling and breaking the eggs, if it can find them. The female, opposing this artifice by another, lays her eggs as she runs, and often, from her desire of laying, she drops her eggs wherever she may be, if the male is present; and, that they may all be preserved, she does not return to them. If she is observed by men, she leads them away from her eggs as from her young ones, and shows herself just before them until they are drawn away from the nest.
3. When the hen has escaped for incubation, the cocks crow and fight together. These are called widowers. The vanquished in the combat follows his conqueror who alone has intercourse with him; and if any one is overcome by a second, or by any chance one, the victor has secret intercourse with him. This does not take place always, but only at certain seasons of the year. The quail does the same, and domestic fowls also; for when a new one is offered in the temples, where they are kept without the females, all in turn are united with it. Tame partridges have sexual intercourse with wild ones, and strike and insult them.
4. The leader of the wild partridges attacks the partridge used in fowling, and goes out crowing as if he would fight. When he is taken in the trap, the other goes out and crows in the same manner. If the partridge used for fowling is a cock, they behave in this way; but if it is a female, and she calls, the leader answers her call; and all the rest rise up and beat him, and drive him away from the female, because he attends to her instead of themselves. For this reason he often comes silently, that the others may not hear his voice and come out to fight him. And some experienced fowlers say that the male approaches the female in silence, that the other males may not hear him and compel him to fight them. The partridge not only calls, but also utters a shrill cry and other sounds.