1 84 EGGS 



empty shell of carbonate of lime,^ stained or not (as the case might 

 be) by a secretion of the villous membrane of the parent's uterus, 

 was to him a sufficient reward. Taxonomers, however, have prob- 

 ably been right in not attaching too great an importance to such 

 systematic characters as can be deduced from the eggs of birds, but 

 it would have been better had they not insisted so strongly as they 

 have done on the infallibility of one or another set of characters, 

 chosen by themselves. Oology taken alone proves to be a guide 

 as misleading as any other arbitrary method of classification, but 

 combined with the evidence afforded by due study of other particu- 

 larities, whether superficial or deep-seated, it can scarcely fail in 

 time to conduct us to an ornithological arrangement as nearly true 

 to Nature as we may expect to achieve. 



The first man of science who seems to have given any special 

 thought to oology, was the celebrated Sir Thomas Browne, of 

 Norwich, who already in 1671, when visited by John Evelyn 

 (from whose diary we learn the fact), had assigned a place in his 

 cabinet of rarities to a collection of birds' eggs. The next we hear 

 of is that Count of Marsigli who early in the eighteenth century 

 explored, chiefly for this kind of investigation, the valley of the 

 Danube — a region at that time, it is almost unnecessary to remark, 

 utterly unknown to naturalists. But there is no need to catalogue 

 the worthies of this study. As they approach our own day their 

 number becomes far too great to tell, and if very recently it has 

 seemed to dwindle the reason is probably at hand in the reflexion 

 that most of the greatest prizes have been won, while those that 

 remain to reward the aspiring appear to be just now from one cause 

 or another almost out of reach. Perhaps at the present time the 

 Birds-of-Paradise and the Fin-foots form the only groups of any 

 recognized distinctiveness and extent of whose eggs we know 

 absolutely nothing — though there are important isolated forms, 

 such as Atrichia, Eeteraloclia, and- others, concerning the eggs as 

 well as the breeding-habits of which our ignorance is absolute, and 

 the species of many Families that have hitherto defied the zeal of 

 oologists are very numerous. These last, however, though including 

 some common and some not very uncommon British birds, possess 

 in a general way comparatively little interest, since, the eggs of 

 their nearest allies being well known, we cannot expect much to 

 follow from the discovery of the recluses, and it is only to the 

 impassioned collector that the obtaining of such desiderata will 

 afford much satisfaction. 



The first thing which strikes the eye of one who beholds a large 

 collection of egg-shells is the varied hues of the specimens. Hardly 

 a shade known to the colourist is not exhibited by one or more, 



^ A small proportion of carbonate of magnesia and phosphate of lime and 

 magnesia also enters into its composition. 



