This bird remained for more than seven years in Holland, and was then sent, among other presents, by the illustrious Maurice Prince of Orange, to his serene majesty our King James, in whose gardens it continued to live for a period of upwards of five years. By and by, however, when a pair of ostriches, male and female, were brought to the same place, and the cassowary heard and saw these in a neighbouring inclosure, at their amours, unexpectedly it began to lay eggs, excited, as I imagine, through sympathy with the acts of an allied genus; I say unexpectedly, for all who saw the cassowary, judging from the weapons and ornaments, had regarded it as a male rather than a female. Of these eggs, one was laid entire, and this I opened, and found it perfect: the yelk surrounded by the white, the chalazæ attached on either side, and a small cavity in the blunt end; there was also a cicatricula or macula alba present; the shell was thick, hard, and strong; and having taken off the top, I had it formed into a cup, in the same way as ostrichs’ eggs are commonly fashioned. This egg was somewhat less than that of an ostrich, and, as I have said, perfect in all respects. Undoubtedly, however, it was a sort of accidental egg, and, by reason of the absence of the male, unfruitful. I predicated the death of the cassowary as likely to happen soon when she began laying, moved to do so by what Aristotle says:[139] “Birds become diseased and die unless they produce fruitful eggs.” And my prediction came true not long afterwards. On opening the body of the cassowary, I discovered an imperfect and putrid egg in the upper part of the uterus, as the cause of its untimely death, just as I had found the same thing in the parrot, and other instances besides. Many birds, consequently, the more salacious they are, the more fruitful are they; and occasionally, when abundantly fed, or from some other cause, they will even lay eggs without the access of the male. It rarely happens, however, that the eggs so produced are either perfected or laid; the birds are commonly soon seized with serious disorders, and at length die. The common fowl nevertheless not only conceives eggs, but lays them, quite perfect in appearance too; but they are always wind eggs, and incapable of producing a chick. In like manner many insects, among the number silkworms and butterflies, conceive eggs and lay them, without the access of the male, but they are still adventitious and barren. Fishes also do the same.