428 The Bird 



chance in the letter}' of hfe in the open ocean. Of her 

 nine milhons of eggs, will one survive? 



How strange is the four-tendriled, purse-like cradle 

 of the baby shark; how delicate the forms and patterns 

 of butterflies' eggs ! and was there ever a more model 

 parent than that frog which holds its eggs in its mouth 

 until the tadpoles grow up? 



The white leathery eggs of turtles and lizards bring 

 us to our subject. Leading all in beauty and interest are 

 the eggs of birds. Precious stones have always exerted 

 a great fascination over mankind, and in appearance 

 birds' eggs may be compared with gems; indeed the shell 

 itself is almost wholly composed of mineral matter. But, 

 far from being an inanimate crystal, an egg shelters one 

 of the marvels of the w^orld — an embryo bird. The 

 gaudy sea-shell cloaks a slimy snail, but from the beautiful 

 egg of a bird emerges a greater beauty. 



Reptiles lay white eggs whose shells are not brittle, 

 but, when broken, curl up like a celluloid film. Some 

 of these reptilian eggs are oblong in shape, but most are 

 spherical and the great majority are deposited in the 

 ground, or under bark, and are hatched by the heat of the 

 decaying vegetation or by the direct rays of the sun. 

 Thus we see that there is little need for variation in 

 shape or colour. Among birds, however, we find very- 

 different conditions. 



As we know that birds have evolved from reptiles, 

 we have a right to suppose that the early forms of birds 

 laid white, leathery eggs, perhaps in hollow trees; but 

 the power of flight has taken birds entirel}^ out of the 



