COLOURS OF EGGS. 35 



(FringiUa chlorals, Temminck), again, which builds 

 an open nest of green moss, hned with horsehair, 

 black or white as it can be had, lays clear white eggs 

 with red spots, precisely like those of the common 

 wren and the willow wren [Stjlvia Trochilus), which 

 build covered nests with a small side-entrance; while 

 the iiouse-sparrow (Fringilla domestica) lays eggs of 

 a dull, dirty green, streaked with dull black, and al- 

 ways builds in holes or under cover. These objec- 

 tions will render it unnecessary for us to follow Darwin 

 into his fanciful account of the origin of the colour of 

 eggs, which he ascribes to the colour of the objects 

 amongst which the mother bird chiefly lives acting 

 upon the shell through the medium of the nerves of 

 the eye; for, if this were correct, we should have the 

 green-finch and the red-breast, instead of their white 

 eggs, laying blue ones like the hedge-sparrow and the 

 firetail. 



Upon a partial view of the subject, we might bring 

 many facts to support the theory from the colour of 

 the eggs of insects. The nettle butterflies, for ex- 

 ample, the small tortoise shell ( Vanessa Urticce), the 

 peacock ( F. /o), and the admirable ( F. Atalanta), 

 all lay eggs of a green colour, precisely similar in 

 tint to the plant to which they are attached. On the 

 contrary, the eggs of the miller moth (Apatela Ltpo- 

 rina, Steph.), which are deposited on the gray bark 

 of the willow, are light purple; another beautiful geo- 

 metric moth {^Geomttra illunaria)^ which Sepp* calls 

 Herculesje, lays its pink eggs in the fissures of the 

 bark of the elm ; the puss moth ( Cerrura Hnula) 

 lays shining brown eggs on the green leaf of the pop- 

 lar; and the garden white butterfly {Pontia Brassicce) 

 lays a group of yellow ones on a green cabbage or cole- 

 wort leaf, but not of so bright a yellow as those of the 

 seven-spot ladybird (Coccme//a Septempundata), 



* Sepp, der Wonderen Gods, Tab. 35. 



