Note 2 — Decade Fourth

There are certain birds that possess remarkable characteristics. The one called tabon is found on [183] the coast of Caragha.2 It is smaller than a domestic hen, and very like it [in appearance], although not in affection for its young. It lays its eggs, which are three times larger than those of our hens, in sandy places, and easily buries them in a hole about one braza deep. That done, it abandons them, and never returns to examine them again. Thereafter, the preservation of those birds being in the care of divine Providence, the heat of the sun quickens and hatches them, and the chicks, leaving the shell, also break out of the sand above them, and gradually get to the surface in order to enjoy the common light; and thus, without any further aid, they fly away. If it happens that the chick in the egg is buried with its head down, it does not get our, for upon breaking the shell and the sand, it continues to dig always downward, as that is the direction that its head has; and as it misses the road it gets tired and dies, and its cradle serves as its tomb.