Note d — BOOK VII.
Reading edition
The Tabon is a Bird no bigger than a Chicken, but is said to lay an Egg larger than a Goose’s Egg, and bigger than the Bird it self. These they lay a Yard deep in the Sand, where they are hatch’d by the Warmth of the Sun; after which they creep out, and get to Sea for Provisions. Navarett’s Account of China in Collect. of Voyages, Vol. 1. This Account is in all Probability borrow’d from Nieremberg, or Hernandez, (that copy’d from him,) who call this Bird by the Name of Daie, and its Eggs Tapun, not the Bird it self, as Navarette doth. But my Friend Mr. Ray saith of it, Historia isthæc proculdubio fabulosa & falsa est. Quamvis enim Aves nonnulla maxima ova pariunt, ut v.g. Alkæ, Lomwiæ, Anates, Arcticæ, &c. hujusmodi tamen unum duntaxat, non plura ova ponunt antequam incubent: nec ullam in rerum naturâ avem dari existimo cujus ova albumine careant. Cum Albumen præcipua ovi pars sit, quodque primum fœtus alimentum subministrat. Raii Synop. Av. Method. p. 155.