On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson.

  • William Swainson
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the habits and instincts of animals / By William Swainson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    own island, although the nests of each particular species, when built in the open country, are always essentially on the same principle ; yet, when found near towns or villages, where the same materials are not to be procured, their formation is adapted both to the situation in which they are placed, and to the substance of which they are constructed.* The nest of the com- mon wren (T'roglodytes Europeus) illustrates the above — fact: if built against a haystack, it will be uniformly made of hay; if attached to a tree covered with white lichen, it will be chiefly covered with the same sub- stance ; and so on, according to the place which it may chance to occupy. The obvious intention, however, in every instance, is to provide against discovery, by assimilating the exterior of the nest as near as possible to the object close to it. 19.) In rearing their young, other instincts become developed. The ostrich will exemplify this second branch of our subject ; and this unjustly slandered bird is now relieved from the odium which the ancients attached to her, since it is proved that she not only hatches her eggs, but that she reserves others, to pro- vide ‘the young with nourishment when they first burst into life. In Senegal, where the heat is extreme, the ostrich, it is said, sits at night only, upon those which are to be rendered fertile ; but at the Cape of Good Hope, where the sun has less power, the mother re- mains constant in her attentions to the eggs, both day and night. The instinct of this bird, in providing food for its young, appears to be without parallel, and is thus noticed by Le Vaillant : —‘“ During this day’s journey, I met with the nest of an ostrich, upon which the female was hatching: there were three eggs de- posited on the bare ground, lying before her; and she was sitting upon nine others, the young of which were in so advanced a state as to be ready to burst the shell.” The separation of the eggs in this manner into two parcels — one parcel intended to supply the first food * White’s Selborne, vol. ii. p. 70.
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