I07 



ing habits are very different, as a rule lay similarly 

 coloured eggs, 



2. • Eggs laid in domed nests certainly do not need 

 protective colouring, yet many of these are coloured. 



3. The same is true of many eggs laid in holes. 



4. The protective resemblances of eggs which are 

 laid on the bare ground are apparent to everyone, 

 which certainly is not true of those deposited in nests. 



5. Many birds lay eggs which exhibit very great 

 variations. 



6. Some birds lay several types of eggs, and these 

 sometimes differ from one another so greatly that it is 

 difficult to believe that they are the products of the 

 same species. 



If we accept this view we have to discover what 

 it is that determines the colours and markings of eggs. 

 It seems to me that the aviculturist is the best person 

 to elucidate this. 



When I was a boy I used to keep a few fowls of 

 different varieties, and when I found an egg I was able 

 to tell which of my hens laid it, even though I possessed 

 more than one hen of each breed. It was by the 

 texture quite as much as by the shade of the eggs that 

 I used to distinguish them. Does this apply to all 

 birds, does every hen impress her individual stamp on 

 the shell of each of her eggs ? The colouring matter 

 present in many eggs is, I believe, of an excretory 

 nature, being composed of various bile pigments. 

 Does stimulating food tend to increase the amount of 

 pigment deposited in an egg? Can the quantity of 

 this colouring matter be increased or decreased by 

 artificial means? I notice that Dr. Albert Giinther in 

 a most valuable paper on the breeding of the Red- 



