CONSTRUCTION OF EGGS. 



125 



|l up m a ring, as is distinctly shown in many of the 

 ! beautiful and accurate figures of Sepp.* 



«, egg of the privet hiuvk-moth (Sphlvx Li-^ustn) magriified, 

 showing the inclosed embryo, t, the caterpillar, when grown. 



In the case of the eggs of birds, the chick, when 

 fully developed, breaks the shell with its bill, the 

 point of which is then furnished with a hard scale. 

 This is evidently contrived by providential wisdom for 

 this very purpose, for it drops off in a {qw days after 

 the chick is excluded. It is probable that the larvae 

 of many insects which are furnished with strong man- 

 dibles gnaw their way through the egg-shell; but we 

 know that there are others which, like the spider, 

 rupture their envelope, since the edges appear ragged 

 and irregular. Others, again, seem to have an open- 

 ing provided for them, in a door, which only requires 

 them to push it open. This is the case with the louse 

 {Pcdiculus hnmaniis), and with the bird-louse (A'ir- 

 mus), found on the neck feathers of the golden phea- 

 sant. A still more ingenious contrivance was discov- 

 ered by the Rev. R. Sheppard^ in the egg of a feld 

 bug [Pentatomaj Latr.), which is not only furnish- 



VOI.. VJ 



* Der Wonderen Gods, passim. 

 11* 



