Thus I have dispatched what I intend to insist upon concerning the State of this Set of Animals; of which, as also of their admirable Instincts, a great deal more might deserve our especial Observation; particularly the admirable Curiosity, Art, and Variety of Nidification[f], used among the various Species of Birds; the great Sagacity, and many Artifices used by them in the Investigation and Capture of their Prey[g], the due Proportion of the more and less useful, the Scarcity of the Voracious and Pernicious, and the Plenty of the Mansuete and Useful[h]. Also the Variety of their Motion and Flight might deserve Consideration, the Swiftness of such whose Food is to be sought in far distant Places, and different Seasons[]; the slower Motion and short Flights of others more domestick; and even the Aukwardness of some others to Flight, whose Food is near at hand, and to be gotten without any great Occasion of Flight[k]. These and divers other such like Things as these, I say, I might have spoken more largely unto; but I shall pass them by with only a bare Mention, having already taken notice of them in the Company of other Matters of the like Nature, and manifested them to be Acts of excellent Design, Wisdom, and Providence, in the great Creator.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] The Chicken is form’d out of, and nourish’d by the White alone, till it be grown great. The Yolk serves for the Chicken’s Nourishment, after it is well grown, and partly also after it is hatch’d. For a good Part of the Yolk remains after Exclusion, being receiv’d into the Chicken’s Belly; and being there reserv’d, as in a Store-house, is by the Appendicula, or Ductus intestinalis, as by a Funnel, convey’d into the Guts, and serves instead of Milk, &c. Willugh. Ornith. L. 1. c. 3. Ipsum animal ex albo liquore Ovi corporatur. Cibus ejus in lutco est. Plin. L. 10. c. 53.
Aristotle saith, The long sharp Eggs bring Females; the round ones, with a larger Compass at the sharper End, Males. Hist. An. L. 6. c. 2. After which, he tells of a Sott at Syracuse, that sate drinking so long, till Eggs were hatch’d; as also of the Custom of Ægypt, of hatching Eggs in Dunghills.
[] As the Shell and Skin keep the Yolk and two Whites together; so each of the Parts, (the Yolk and inner White at least,) are separated by Membranes, involving them. At each End of the Egg is a Treddle, so call’d, because it was formerly thought to be the Sperm of the Cock. But the Use of these, (saith Dr. Harvey in Willugh. Ornith. c. 3.) is to be as ’twere, the Poles of this Microcosm, and the Connections of all the Membranes twisted and knit together, by which the Liquors are not only conserv’d, each in its Place, but do also retain their due Position one to another. This, although in a great Measure true, yet doth not come up to what I have my self observ’d; for I find, that these Chalazæ, or Treddles, serve not barely to keep the Liquors in their Place, and Position to one another; but also to keep one and the same Part of the Yolk uppermost, let the Egg be turn’d nearly which way it will; which is done by this Mechanism: The Chalazæ are specifically lighter than the Whites, in which they swim; and being brac’d to the Membrane of the Yolk, not exactly in the Axis of the Yolk, but somewhat out of it; causeth one Side of the Yolk to be heavier than the other; so that the Yolk being by the Chalazæ made buoyant, and kept swimming in the Midst of two Whites, is by its own heavy Side kept with the same Side always uppermost; which uppermost Side I have some Reason to think, is that on which the Cicatricula lies; that being commonly uppermost in the Shell, especially in some Species of Eggs more I think than others.
[c] All Birds lay a certain Number of Eggs, or nearly that Number, and then betake themselves to their Incubation; but if their Eggs be withdrawn, they will lay more. Of which, see Mr. Ray’s Wis. of God, p. 137.
[d] The Tabon is a Bird no bigger than a Chicken, but is said to lay an Egg larger than a Goose’s Egg, and bigger than the Bird it self. These they lay a Yard deep in the Sand, where they are hatch’d by the Warmth of the Sun; after which they creep out, and get to Sea for Provisions. Navarett’s Account of China in Collect. of Voyages, Vol. 1. This Account is in all Probability borrow’d from Nieremberg, or Hernandez, (that copy’d from him,) who call this Bird by the Name of Daie, and its Eggs Tapun, not the Bird it self, as Navarette doth. But my Friend Mr. Ray saith of it, Historia isthæc proculdubio fabulosa & falsa est. Quamvis enim Aves nonnulla maxima ova pariunt, ut v.g. Alkæ, Lomwiæ, Anates, Arcticæ, &c. hujusmodi tamen unum duntaxat, non plura ova ponunt antequam incubent: nec ullam in rerum naturâ avem dari existimo cujus ova albumine careant. Cum Albumen præcipua ovi pars sit, quodque primum fœtus alimentum subministrat. Raii Synop. Av. Method. p. 155.
[e] The Eggs of the Ostrich being buried in the Sand, are cherished only by the Heat of the Sun, till the Young be excluded. For the Writers of Natural History do generally agree, that the old Birds, after they have laid and covered their Eggs in the Sand, forsake them, and take no more Care of them. Willugh. Ornith. L. 2. c. 8. §. 1.
But there is another Ostrich [of America] which Acaret tells us of, that takes more Care of her Young, by carrying four of her Eggs, a little before she hatcheth, to four Parts of her Nest, there to breed Worms for Food for her Young. Acaret’s Disc. in Philos. Trans. Nᵒ. 89.