If The Hen
Was Obliged To Hatch Her Own Eggs, Before The Last Was Laid
The First Probably Would Be
Addled; but if each laid a few
eggs at successive periods, in different nests, and several
hens, as is stated
To be the case, combined together, then
the eggs in one collection would be nearly of the same age.
If the number of eggs in one of these nests is, as I believe,
not greater on an average than the number laid by one
female in the season, then there must be as many nests as
females, and each cock bird will have its fair share of the
labour of incubation; and that during a period when the
females probably could not sit, from not having finished
laying. [15] I have before mentioned the great numbers of
huachos, or deserted eggs; so that in one day's hunting
twenty were found in this state. It appears odd that so
many should be wasted. Does it not arise from the difficulty
of several females associating together, and finding a male
ready to undertake the office of incubation? It is evident
that there must at first be some degree of association between
at least two females; otherwise the eggs would remain
scattered over the wide plain, at distances far too great to
allow of the male collecting them into one nest: some authors
have believed that the scattered eggs were deposited
for the young birds to feed on. This can hardly be the case
in America, because the huachos, although often found
addled and putrid, are generally whole.
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