Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
Ver. 14. Which leaveth her eggs in the earth] Some say that she layeth 80 eggs, and having a faculty of discerning which of them will prove ostriches, and which will come to nothing; she leaveth some of them upon the sand, and upon other some sitteth and hatcheth them. But this appeareth to be a fiction, because another and a better reason of her leaving her eggs is here alleged; and the power and providence of God giving them life by the heat of the sun, evidenced and evinced.
And warmeth them in the dust] Julius Scaliger reporteth the like of a certain crested bird of the size of a hen, found in Catigan, an island in the sea Sur; which sitteth not upon her eggs, but burieth them two feet deep in the sand; whence they are hatched by the sun and hot sands; and this, say some, in very hot countries is not unusual.