336 Natural History of my 'Neighbourhood : — 



have, however, the egg of a crow, of very diminutive size 

 and uncouth shape ; but it had been kept so long before I 

 knew of its existence, that its contents were dried up, and, 

 consequently, I cannot speak of its internal formation. I have 

 also the eggs of the queest [ringdove or wood pigeon], of 

 very small size. The nest was taken on the 18th of April ; 

 and, from the small size of the egg, I presumed it was that of 

 a turtle-dove, although I had never known this bird to visit 

 us so early in the season : however, in extracting the contents 

 of the eggs, I found that neither of them contained any yolk. 

 But, the most irregular egg that I have at all met with 

 is that of a domestic hen. It weighed 1425 grs., and is as 

 uncouth in shape as it was extraordinary in size. The shell is 

 divided into three compartments or swellings, and contained 

 three yolks ; a case not recorded by Montagu in the article 

 from which I have already quoted.* [See, in 11. 289., a 

 statement of the anomalous conditions of a pheasant's egg; 

 and, in III. 4-72., one on those of " an egg within an egg," 

 produced by a goose: the instances, in VI. 184., of remark- 

 ably spotted eggs of the common fowl may just be pinned to 

 the present subject.] 



iJFacts and Considerations on the Conditions "which appertain 

 to Birds in the producing of their Eggs."] — Whether birds 

 have or have not a power to retain or expel their eggs at 

 pleasure, appears to be almost as unsettled a matter as the 

 cause of their song. " Those who suppose a bird capable of 

 producing eggs at will, are certainly mistaken. It will .... 

 lay the number allotted by nature, which is determined before 

 the first egg is produced. If it is prevented from incubation 

 by any means whatever, it may begin again to lay in five or 

 six days ; but there is always an interval of a few days, and 

 sometimes as many weeks, which must wholly depend on the 



* Mr. Conway had, in a communication dated May 24. 1833, favoured 

 us with a drawing of the anomalous egg of the fowl, and one of that of the 

 crow. The drawings are stated to be of the natural size, and exhibit the 

 following dimensions and figures : — The drawing of the fowl's egg is 3 in. 

 and a tenth and a half in length, and I in. and 8 tenths in breadth ; the 

 outline is that of an ellipsis, as the two ends are similar in form and 

 dimension, but has its curve slightly interrupted in three or four places by 

 a just perceptible protrusion, exhibiting, of course, slight prominences in 

 these places in the egg itself. The drawing of the crow's egg is in outline 

 a prolate spheroid, or nearly so ; and its longer diameter is scarcely 

 9 tenths of an inch, and shorter one full 7 tenths. This extraordinary 

 example seems an apposite, and, we suppose, is an extreme, illustration of 

 the accuracy of the remark of Mr. Waterton in VI. 209. ; namely, the eggs 

 of the carrion crow are " wonderfully irregular in size and shape and 

 colour." Mr. Waterton has also remarked, in VII. 105., that the eggs of 

 the rook vary much in colour, shape, and size. — J. D. 



