BIRDS* EGGS 



CHAPTER III 



Painting of the Egg. Diversity in Shape. Music of the 

 Moon. Size of Eggs in Relation to that of Parents. 

 Erythrism in Eggs. 



The ancient Eastern occultists in endeavouring 

 to develop their psychic powers — powers which they 

 held to be latent in every human spirit — placed 

 before themselves a seed as an object of prolonged 

 contemplation. They first learned every line, dint 

 and mark, on the outward contour ; then, we are 

 told, their spirit slowly blended with the living 

 spirit in the seed until they came to see clairvoyantly 

 the forces at work which build up the green, rounded 

 stem, shape the various leaves, and finally, deck the 

 flower in all its lovely and delicately arranged hues. 



In the practical West, where time is money, we 

 are hardly likely to devote the months or years 

 necessary for this kind of development, even if we 

 are willing to admit, in the words of the man-in-the 

 street, that " there may be something in it ; " but 

 it is open for all to take a seed or an egg, and by 

 holding the mind firmly upon it, to learn something 

 of what it has to tell on its simple, material side. 



In the first place, look at the vaiied colours of 

 eggs — the golden eagle's or the sparrow-hawk's, 

 with their bold, irregulai blotches, the tit's, with 

 their delicate round red spots, the oyster-catcher's 

 or yellow-hammer's, with their remarkable tracery 



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