or any of those many intermediate Places over which some of them probably fly?

And lastly, to all this let us briefly add the Accommodations, thefe Birds of Paffage have, to ens able them to take fuch long Flights, viz. the Length of their Wings, or their more than ordinary Strength (5) for Flight.

CHAP.

nus reports. vid. Ornith. L 2. c. 3. But Etmuller puts the Matter out of doubt; who faith, Memini me plures, quam quas Medimaus caperit, Hirundines are concervatas intra Pifcine ca nas, fub glacie prorfus ad fenfum examines pulfantes tamen, reperiiffe. Etmuller Differt. 2. c. 10. § 5. This as it is like what Ol. Magnus faith, fo is a Confirmation of it. The A. Bp's Account is, In Septentrionalibus aquis fæpius cafu Pifcato ris extrabuntur Hirundines, in modum conglomerata mafa, que ore ad os, ala ad alam, & pede ad pedem poft principium autumni fefe inter cannas defcenfura colligarunt. Maffa autem illa per imperitos adolefcentes extracta, atque in æftuaria portata, caloris acceffu Hirundines refolutæ, volare quidem incipiunt, fed exiguo, tempore durant. Ol. Mag. Hift. L. 19. c. 29. ~

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Since my penning this Note, we had, at a Meeting of the Royal Society, Feb. 12. 1712-13, a farther Confirmation of Swallows retiring under Water in Winter, from Dr. Colas, a Perfon very curious in these Matters; who speaking of their Way of Fishing in the Northern Parts by breaking Holes, and drawing their Nets under the Ice, faith, that he faw Sixteen Swallows fo drawn out of the Lake of Samrodt, and about Thirty out of the King's great Pond in Rofineilen; and that at Schlebit ten, near an Housle of the E. of Dihna, he faw two Swallows just come out of the Waters, that could scarce ftand, being very wet and weak, with their Wings hanging on the Ground; and that he hath obferved the Swallows to be often weak for fome Days after their Appearance.

(5) As Swallows are well accommoda:ed for long Flights by their long Wings, fo are Quails by the Strength of their Peltoral Mufcles, by the Breadth of their Wings, c. For Quails have but thort Wings for the Weight of their Body, and yet they fly from us into warmer Parts, against Winter, and to us in Spring, croffing our Seas. So divers Tra vellers tell us they cross the Mediterranean twice a Year, flying from Europe to Africa, and back again. Thus Bello

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CHA P. IV.

Of the INCUBATION of Birds.

Nother Thing relating to the State of this Tribe of Animals, is their Incubation. And firft, the Egg it felf deferves our Notice. It's Parts within; and its crufty Coat without, are admirably well fitted for the Bufinefs of Incubation. That there fhould be one Part provided for the Formation of the Body (1) before its Exit, into the World, and another for its Nourishment after it is come into the World, till the Bird is

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nius in Mr. Willoughby, faith; When we failed from Rhodes to Alexandria of Egypt, many Quails flying from the North towards the South, were taken in our Ship; whence I am ve rily perfwaded, that they fhift Places: For formerly also, when I failed out of the Ile of Zant to Morea or Negropont, in the Spring-time, I bad obferved Quails flying the contrary Way from South to North, that they might abide there all Summer. At which time also, there were a great many taken in our Ship. Ornith. p. 170.

(1) The Chicken is formed out of, and nourifbed by the White 4Bane, till it be grown great. The Tolk ferves for the Chickens Nourishment, after it is well grown, and partly alfo after it is hatched. For a good Part of the Tolk remains after Exclufion, being received into the Chickens Belly; and being there referved as in a Store-house, is by the [Appendicula, or Ductus inteftinalis] as by a Funnel, conveyed into the Guts, and ferves instead of Milk, &c. Willugh Ornith L. I. c. 3. Ipfum animal ex albo liquore Ovi corporatur. Cibus ejus in luteo eft. Plin. L. 10. c. 53.

Ariftotle faith, The long fbarp Eggs bring Females; the round ones, with a larger Compass at the sharper end, Males. Hift. An. L. 6. C. 2. After which, he tells of a Sot at Syracufe, that fate drinking fo long, till Eggs were hatched; as also of the Cuftom of Egypt, of hatching Eggs in Dunghills.

able to shift for, and help it felf, and that these Parts fhould be fo accurately braced, and kept in due Place (), is certainly a defigned, as well as curious Piece of Workmanship.

And then as to the Act it felf of Incubation, what a prodigious. Inftinct is it in all, or almoft all the feveral Species of Birds, that they, and only they, of all Creatures, fhould betake themfelves to this very way of Generation! How fhould they be aware that their Eggs contain their Young, and that their Production is in their Power (2)? What fhould

(S) As the Shell and Skin keep the Yolk and two Whites together, fo each of the Parts (the Yolk and inner White at leaft) are feparated by Membranes, involving them. At each End of the Egg is a Treddle, fo called, because it was formerly thought to be the Sperm of the Cock. But the Use of thefe (faith Dr. Harvey in Willugb. Ornith. c. 3.) is to be as 'twere, the Poles of this Microcofm, and ibe Connexions of all the Membranes twifed and knit together, by which the Liquors are not only conferved each in its Place, but do alfo retain their due Pofition one to another. This, al though in a great measure true, yet doth not come up to what I have my self obferved; for I find, that these Chalara or Treddles, serve not barely to keep the Liquors in their Place and Pofition to one another; but alfo to keep one and the fame Part of the Yolk uppermoft, let the Egg be turned nearly which way it will which is done by this Mechanifm: The Chalaza ate fpecifically lighter than the Whites, in which they fwim, and being braced to the Membrane of the Yolk, not exactly in the Axis of the Yolk, but fomewhat out of it, caufeth one fide of the Yolk to be heavier than the other; fo that the Yolk being by the Chalaze made buoyant, and kept fwimming in the Midft of the two Whites, is by its own heavy Side kept with the fame Side always uppermoft; which uppermoft Side I havé fome Reason to think, is that, on which the Cicatricula lies; that being commonly uppermoft in the Shell, especially in fome Spe cies of Eggs more I think than others.

(2) All Birds lay a certain Number of Eggs, or nearly that Number, and then betake themfelves to their Incubation; but if their Eggs be withdrawn, they will lay more. Of which fee Mr. Ray's Wif. of God, p. 137.

fhould move them to betake themselves to their Nefts, and there with Delight and Patience to abide the due Number of Days? And when their Young are gotten into the World, I have already fhewn how admirable their Art, their Care, and Top is in bringing them up until, and only until, they are able to fhift for themselves.

And lastly, when almoft the whole Tribe of Birds, do thus by Incubation, produce their Young, it is a wonderful Deviation, that fome few Families only, fhould do it in a more novercal Way (3), without any Care or Trouble at all, only by laying their Eggs in the Sand, expofed to the Heat and Incubation of the Sun. Of this the Holy Scripture it felf gives us an Inftance in the Oftrich. Of which we have an Hint, Lam. 4. 3. The Daughter of my People is become cruel, like the Oftriches in the Wilderness. This is more plainly expreffed in Fob 39. 14, 15, 16, 17. [The Ostrich] leaveth her Eggs in the Earth, and warmeth them in the Duft, and forgeteth that the Foot may crush them,

or

(3) The Tabon is a Bird no bigger than a Chicken, but is faid to lay an Egg larger than a Goole's Egg, and bigger than the Bird it felf. These they lay a Yard deep in the Sand, where they are hatched by the Warmth of the Sun; after which they creep out and get to Sea for Provifions. Navarett's Account of China in Colled of Voyages, Vol. 1. This Account is in all Probability borrowed from Nieremberg, or Hernandez (that copied from him) who call this Bird by the Name of Daie, and its Eggs Tapun, not the Bird it felf, as Navarette doth. But my Friend Mr. Ray faith of it, Hiftoria ifthac proculdubio fabulofa & falfa eft. Quamvis enim Aver nonnullæ maxima ova pariunt, ut v. g. Alka, Lomwiæ, Anates, Arcticæ, &c. bujufmodi tamen unum duntaxat, non plura ova ponunt antequam incubent: nec ullam in rerum natura avem dari exiftimo cujus ova albumine careant. Cum Albumen præcipua ovi pars fit, quodque primum færui alimentum fubminiftrat. Raii Synop. Av. Method, p. 155.

or that the Wild-Beaft may break them. She is bardened against her Young ones, as though they were not bers: Her Labour is in vain without Fear. Because God hath deprived her of Wisdom, neither bath he imparted unto her Understanding. In which Words I fhall take notice of three Things, 1. Of this anomalous Way of Generation. It is not very ftrange, that no other Incubation but that of the Sun, fhould produce the Young; but 'tis very odd and wonderful that any one Species fhould vary from all the rest of the Tribe. But above all, 2. The fingular Care of the Creator, in this Cafe, is very remarkable, in fupplying fome other Way the Want of the Parent-Animals Care and Empyn (4), fo that the Young should notwithstanding be bred up in those large and barren Defarts of Arabia and Africa, and fuch like Places where thofe Birds dwell, the moft unlikely and unfitting (in all human Opinion) to afford Suftenance to young helplefs Creatures, but the fitteft therefore to give Demonftrations of the Wifdom, Care, and efpecial Providence of the infinite Creator and Confervator of the World. 3. The laft Thing I fhall remark is, That the Inftincts of Irrational Animals, at leaft of this fpecified in the Text, is attributed to GOD. For the Reason the Text gives why

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(4) The Eggs of the Oftrich being buried in the Sand, are cherifhed only by the Heat of the Sun, till the Toung be excluded. For the Writers of Natural Hiftory do generally agree, that the old Birds, after they have laid and covered their Eggs in the Sand, forfake them, and take no more Care of them. Willugh. Ornith. L. 2. c. 8. §. 1.

But there is another Oftrich [of America] which Acarer tells us of, that takes more Care of her Young, by carrying four of her Eggs, a little before the hatcheth, to four Parts of her Neft, there to breed Worms for Food for her Young, Acaret's Difc. in Philof. Iranfa&t. No. 89.

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