THE EGG. 105 



may be given exactly the reverse, showing these are 

 mere coincidences ; wliilst the law of " sexual selection " 

 can by no stretch of imagination have the slightest in- 

 fluence on the future colouring of the egg, as this 

 colourino" has no connection or resemblance to the bird's 

 plumage. 



Neither has the food on which the parent bird exists 

 any connection with the colouring of the egg ; if it had, 

 carnivorous birds would always have one colour, and 

 graminivorous another, but such is not the case. 

 In the family of which we are now treating, the 

 Ostricli has a white egg, the most conspicuous colour to 

 attract its enemies ; whilst the Emu, having the same 

 habits and living under the same conditions, has a dark- 

 blue egg. The colouring of the egg appears to be one 

 of those inscrutable ordinances of the Creator, for which 

 man can give no reason, as it appears to serve no pur- 

 pose but that of endangering the life of the enclosed 

 chick, by attracting the attacks of its enemies : which is 

 utterly opposed to the doctrine of evolutionists, who 

 hold that no variation in colouring or form can exist 

 unless it in some way benefits the future chances of the 

 possessor's survival or multiplication. This it certainly 

 does not do whilst the chick is in the shell ; and as 

 at its birth it casts away the shell, the colouring can 

 exercise no influence on its after-life. 



