provided for their defence against other adversaries, because
the females of these species are without this armour;
Zoonomia, Sect. XXXIX. 4, 8.]

"So Knight on Knight, recorded in romance,
Urged the proud steed, and couch'd the extended lance;
He, whose dread prowess with resistless force,
O'erthrew the opposing warrior and his horse, 330
Bless'd, as the golden guerdon of his toils,
Bow'd to the Beauty, and receiv'd her smiles.

"So when fair HELEN with ill-fated charms,
By PARIS wooed, provoked the world to arms,
Left her vindictive Lord to sigh in vain
For broken vows, lost love, and cold disdain;
Fired at his wrongs, associate to destroy
The realms unjust of proud adulterous Troy,
Unnumber'd Heroes braved the dubious fight,
And sunk lamented to the shades of night. 340

"Now vows connubial chain the plighted pair,
And join paternal with maternal care;
The married birds with nice selection cull
Soft thistle-down, gray moss, and scattered wool,
Line the secluded nest with feathery rings,
Meet with fond bills, and woo with fluttering wings.
Week after week, regardless of her food,
The incumbent Linnet warms her future brood;
Each spotted egg with ivory lips she turns,
Day after day with fond expectance burns, 350
Hears the young prisoner chirping in his cell,
And breaks in hemispheres the obdurate shell.
Loud trills sweet Philomel his tender strain,
Charms his fond bride, and wakes his infant train;
Perch'd on the circling moss, the listening throng
Wave their young wings, and whisper to the song.

[Footnote: _The incumbent Linnet_, l. 348. The affection of
the unexperienced and untaught bird to its egg, which induces
it to sit days and weeks upon it to warm the enclosed
embryon, is a matter of great difficulty to explain; See
Additional Note IX. on Storge. Concerning the fabrication of
their nests, see Zoonomia, Sect. XVI. 13. on instinct.]

[Footnote: _Hears the young prisoner_, l. 351. The air-vessel
at the broad end of an incubated egg gradually extends its
edges along the sides of the shell, as the chick enlarges,
but is at the same time applied closer to the internal
surface of the shell; when the time of