FANCIES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



so as to become exactly figured like those of another 

 family, but preserve, year after year, a certain 

 characteristic figuring. Few animal substances, in 

 a recent state, contain more hepatic gas than an 

 eggshell, as is manifest from the very offensive 

 smell that proceeds from it when burned. A little 

 of this is caused by the gluten that cements the 

 calcareous matter, but the overpowering fetor comes 

 from the inner membrane that lines the shell. 



The superstitions and fancies of persons, though 

 we may often contemn them, are yet at times de- 

 serving of notice, being occasionally to be traced to 

 some former-received belief or national custom, and 

 perhaps, when charactered by emblems or ceremo- 

 nies, may be considered as certainly originating from 

 the tenets of some sect or popular observance ; the 

 partiality manifested by the English in general for 

 flowers and horticultural pursuits is recently, from 

 a sentence in Pliny (Nat. Hist. XIV., chap, iv.), 

 supposed to have been acquired from their Roman 

 conquerors ; and probably many other attachments 

 and practices, though obscured and perverted by 

 time, have been retained from the example of some 

 of the various nations who have ruled in our island. 

 Bird-nesting boys, I suppose, are. yet to be met 

 with in many a rural village, being a habit from 

 immemorial antiquity, pursued with eagerness in 

 contention with their fellows for numbers and rarity ; 

 but that accomplished, like so many of our pursuits 

 in after life, the pleasure ceases when rivalry is no 

 more : but, regarding these birds' eggs, we have a 



