Chap. 74.] THE VAEIOUS KINDS OF EGGS. 533 



for instance ; others are of a pale colour, as in the aquatic 

 birds : others, again, are dotted all over with spots, as is the 

 case with those of the meleagris ; others are red, like those of 

 the pheasant and the cenchris. In the inside, the eggs of all 

 birds are of two colours ; those of the aquatic kind have more 

 of the yellow than the white, and the yellow is of a paler tint 

 than in those of other birds. Among fish, the eggs are of the 

 same colour throughout, there being, in fact, no white. The 

 eggs of birds are of a brittle nature, in consequence of the 

 natural heat of the animal, while those of serpents are supple, 

 in consequence of their coldness, and those of fish soft, from 

 their natural humidity. Again, the eggs of aquatic birds are 

 round, while those of most other kinds are elongated, and taper 

 to a point. Eggs are laid with the round end foremost, and 

 at the moment that they are laid the shell is soft, but it imme- 

 diately grows hard, as each portion becomes exposed to the air. 

 Horatius Flaccus 15 expresses it as his opinion that those eggs 

 which are of an oblong shape are of the most agreeable flavour. 

 The rounder eggs are those which produce 16 the female, the 

 others the male. The umbilical 17 cord is in the upper part 

 of the egg, like a drop floating on the surface in the shell. 



(53.) There are some birds that couple at all seasons of the 

 year, barn-door fowls, for instance ; they lay, too, at all times, 

 with the exception of two months at mid- winter. Pullets lay 

 more eggs than the older hens, but then they are smaller. In* 

 the same brood those chickens are the smallest that are 

 hatched the first and the last. These animals, indeed, are so 

 prolific, that some of them will lay as many as sixty eggs, 

 some daily, some twice a day, and some in such vast numbers 

 that they have been known to die from exhaustion. Those 

 known as the " Adrianae," 18 are the most esteemed. Pigeons 

 sit ten times a year, and some of them eleven, and in Egypt 

 during the month of the winter solstice even. Swallows, 



15 B. ii. Sat. 4, 1. 12. " Longa quibus facies ovis erit, ille memento, 

 lit succi melioris, ct ut magis alba rotundis." 



16 Aristotle says just the reverse : but Hardouin thinks that the passage 

 in Aristotle has been corrupted. 



17 This, Cuvier says, in reality is not the umbilical cord, but the chalets is, 

 a little transparent and gelatinous ligament, by which the yolk is suspended 

 like a globe. The true umbilical cord of the bird only makes its appearance 

 after an incubation of some days. 



18 Produced in the territory of Adria. See B. iii. c. 18. 



