EGGS, NUMBER AND COLOUR. 83 



singularity, insomuch that one would almost 

 suppose that the bird was guided by reason, 

 rather than instinct. 



With respect to the eggs, they are two in 

 number, white; but often, from their trans- 

 parency, they display the colouring of the yolk, 

 the shell appearing as if tinged with a blush of 

 orange-red or pink. Considering the diminutive 

 size of the birds, the eggs are large ; they are a 

 long-oval, or ellipsoidal in form, measuring from 

 three to four-eighths of an inch in length on the 

 average. 



It would seem that these two eggs are not in 

 all cases laid within a day or two of each other ; 

 but that sometimes the second is not deposited 

 until the first is in a state of advancement. We 

 have quoted an instance in point, from* Mr. 

 G-osse, relative to the eggs which, on one occa- 

 sion, he found in the nest of a POLTTMUS. Had 

 the nest been examined before the second egg 

 was laid, that egg having the chick formed 

 within it, the POLTTMUS might have been re- 

 corded as a species producing only a single egg ; 

 and in this way, we suspect, the idea has arisen 

 that the Trochilus hirsutus never lays more than 

 one egg for each period of incubation. 



It would be interesting to learn whether, in 

 cases where the second egg is laid long after the 

 first, that egg is brought to perfection, or whe- 

 ther it is rejected when the young bird is dis- 

 closed from the first. 



