56 Zoological Society. 



and found those of one species to be much larger than those of the 

 other. The larger kind are nearly the size of the Emu's ; they are 

 somewhat long in form and blunt at the ends ; their colour is a dirty 

 white. They are deposited in a burrow on a nest formed of roots 

 and sticks, and a few of the bird's own feathers. 



" Scythrops Nov^e Hollandle. — I send you the egg of this 

 species, and also the female bird out of which it was taken, after she 

 had received two shots." 



April 27 — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read to the Meeting : — 



1. Descriptions of the Eggs of some of the Birds of Chile. 

 By William Yarrell, Esq., F.L.S. 



From my earliest acquaintance with the eggs of our British Birds, 

 I was led to consider that this department of natural history had not 

 been studied with the attention these beautiful objects deserve ; and 

 the examination of collections of eggs made in India, Australia, North 

 America, and more recently in Chile, have served to confirm my first 

 impression. 



The history of a plant would be incomplete if it did not include a 

 description of the leaf, the flower, and the fruit, as these appear in 

 succession. 



Mr. MacLeay has told us in his ' Horse Entom.,' p. 448, that "as 

 the knowledge of the whole life of an insect must make us better 

 acquainted with its nature than a mere description of one of its forms, 

 in the same proportion ought metamorphosis to outweigh every other 

 principle of arrangement." 



Of two naturalists who studied the Lepidoptera of Europe, it has 

 been stated, that " not satisfied with an acquaintance with the insect 

 in its perfect state, they examined it also in the early stages of its 

 existence ; they compared the various caterpillars with the butterflies 

 which are produced from them, traced with indefatigable industry 

 the plan of nature in these animals, and discovered the resemblance 

 which was invariably preserved in the structure of species related to 

 each other in affinity, in the different stages of their existence." 



With these examples in view, I have been induced to consider the 

 egg of a bird as one stage or condition in the life of the animal : 



That the colour and markings we find deposited on the external 

 surface of the shell afford indications by which classification may be 

 assisted : 



That the eggs of congeneric species will resemble each other in 

 colour and markings, whatever may be the geographical locality in 

 which such species are found. 



Mr. Hewitson, in the introduction to his work containing excellent 

 delineations of the eggs of British birds, observes, that " much useful 

 and highly interesting information might be gained towards the clas- 

 sification of birds, by paying some attention to their eggs ; and it is 

 gratifying to find, in thus regarding them, that, with the exception 



