64 THE COLOURS OF ANIMALS 



is equally inoperative when enemies are artificially 

 excluded from eggs laid in open nests. And the eggs 

 laid in our poultry-yards afford conclusive evidence 

 that colour disappears as surely under the latter 

 condition as under the former. The brown colour 

 must be a very important protection to the eggs of 

 the ancestor of our domestic breeds, the Asiatic jungle 

 fowl (Gallus bankiva) ; while a white appearance 

 would greatly add to the danger of discovery by egg- 

 eating animals. But there is no such difference be- 

 tween the value of white and brown in confinement, 

 and we accordingly find that the colour is disappear- 

 ing. Certain fowls lay white eggs, and the tint of 

 those which still lay coloured eggs varies considerably, 

 * the Cochins laying buff-coloured eggs, the Malays a 

 paler variable buff, and Games a still paler buff. It 

 would appear that dark-coloured eggs characterise the 

 breeds which have lately come from the East, or are 

 still closely allied to those now living there.' ^ 



Erasmus Darwin further suggested that the colours 

 of eggs, in common with other protective colours, may 

 be due to the effect of the imagination of the female.^ 

 This suggestion has been still further elaborated by 

 A. H. S. Lucas,^ but no real proof of it is brought 

 forward in his paper. That eggs resemble their sur- 



* Darwin, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti atiojiy 

 1875, vol. i. p. 261. 



2 Loc. cit. p. 511. 



* Boyal Society of Victoria, 1887, pp. 52-60. 



