184 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 Africhia, Heteralocha, 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, 
1 A small proportion of carbonate of magnesia and phosphate of lime and 
magnesia also enters into its composition, 
