Chap. 80.] HOW EGGS ARE BEST KEPT. 5^9 



bleed from the eyes, while the females lay their eggs with no 

 less difficulty. 



The eagle sits for thirty days, as do most of the larger birds ; 

 the smaller ones, the kite and the hawk for instance, onlj^ 

 twenty. The eagle mostly lays but one egg, never more than 

 three. The bird which is known as the " aegolios,"^* lays four, 

 and the raven sometimes five ; they sit, too, the same number 

 of days as tjtie kite and the hawk. The male crow provides 

 the female with food while she is sitting. The magpie lays 

 nine eggs, the malancoryphus more than twenty, but always 

 an uneven number, and no bird of this kind ever lays more ; so 

 much superior in fecundity are the smaller birds. The young 

 ones of the swallow are blind at first, as is the case also with 

 almost all the birds the progeny of which is numerous. 



CHAP. 80. WHAT EGGS ARE CALLED HYPEREMIA, AJTD WHAT 



CTXOSUEA. HOW EGGS ARE BEST E:EPT. 



The barren eggs, which we have mentioned as " hypenemia," 

 are either conceived by the females when they are influenced 

 by libidinous fancies, and couple with one another, or else at 

 the moment when they are rolling themselves in the dust ; 

 they are produced not only by the pigeon, but by the common 

 hen as well, the partridge, the pea-hen, the goose, and the 

 chenalopex ; these eggs are barren, smaller than the others, of 

 a less agreeable flavour, and more humid. There are some 

 who think that they are generated by the wind, for which 

 reason they give them the name of '' zephyria." The eggs 

 known as *' urina," and which by some are called *'cy- 

 nosura, '^ are only laid in the spring, and at a time when the 

 hen has discontinued sitting. Eggs, if soaked in vinegar, are 

 rendered so soft thereby, that they may be twisted ^^ round 

 the finger like a ring. The best method of preserving them is 

 to keep them packed in bean-meal, or chaff, during the 

 winter, and in bran during the summer. It is a general be- 

 lief, that if kept in salt, they will lose their contents. 



^ Possibly the night-hawk. SiUig says, that in tlie corresponding pas- 

 sage of Aristotle it is atrwXioc- 



35 ii Dog's-urine." See the last Chapter. 



36 Hardouin asserts that this is the fact. 



