Birds are sometimes so lustful, that if you but stroke their backs gently with your hand, they will immediately lie down and expose and protrude their uterine orifice; and if this part be touched with the finger, they will not fail to proclaim their satisfaction. And that the females may thereby be made to lay eggs, as testified to by Aristotle,[135] I have myself found in the case of the blackbird, thrush, and others. I learned the fact, indeed, in former years by accident, and to my detriment; for my wife had a beautiful parrot, a great pet, learned and talkative enough, and so tame that it was allowed to roam at liberty about the house: when its mistress was absent it sought her everywhere; on her return it caressed her, and loudly proclaimed its joy; when called to it would answer; would fly to its mistress, and then seizing her clothes with beak and feet alternately, it climbed to her shoulder, whence creeping down the arm, it reached her hand, its usual seat. When ordered to speak or to sing, it would obey, although it were the night season and quite dark. Full of play and lasciviousness, it would frequently sit in its mistress’s lap, where it loved to have her scratch its head and stroke its back, upon which, fluttering with its wings and making a gentle noise, it testified the pleasure it experienced. I believed all this to proceed from his usual familiarity and love of being noticed; for I always regarded the creature as a male, by reason of his proficiency in talking and singing. For among birds, the females rarely sing or challenge one another by their note; the males alone solace their mates by their tuneful warblings, and call them to the rites of love. And it is on this account that Aristotle says,[136] “If partridges be placed over against the males, and the wind blow towards them from where the males sit, they are impregnated and conceive. They even for the most part conceive from the note of the male bird, if they be in season and full of desire. The flight of the male over them will also have the same effect, the male bird casting down a fertilizing influence upon the female.” Now this happens especially in the spring season, whence the poet sings:[137] Earth teems in Spring, and craves the genial seed. The almighty father, Æther, then descends, In fertilizing showers, into the lap Of his rejoicing spouse, and mingling there In wide embrace sustains the progeny Innumerous that springs. The pathless woods Then ring with the wild bird’s song, and flocks and herds Disport and spend the livelong day in love.