COLOURS OF ECGS. 35 



again, which builds an open nest of green moss, 

 lined with horsehair, black or white as it can be 

 had, laj^s clear white eggs with red spots, precisely 

 like those of the common wren and the willow wren 

 (^Sylvia Trochilus), which build covered nests with 

 a small side-entrance ; while the house- sparrow 

 {Fringilla domestica) lays eggs of a dull, dirty 

 green, streaked with dull black, and always builds in 

 holes or under cover. These objections 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 

 fire-tail. 



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 Urticfe), 

 the peacock (F. lo), and the admirable {F.AtaIa?ita), 

 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 Le- 

 porina., Steph.), which are deposited on the grey 

 bark of the willow, are light purple; the beautiful 

 geometric moth {Geometra illmiaria), which Sepp * 

 calls Hercidesje, lays its light pink eggs in the fissm-es 

 of the bark of the elm ; the puss moth {Cerura vinula) 

 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 

 colewort leaf, but not of so bright a yellow as those of 

 the seven-spot ladybird {CoccuieUa Seplem punctata) . 

 * Sepp, del- Wondercn Gods, Tab, 35, 



