186 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



has a glistening egg, resembling in its texture that 

 of the turkey. The parra of India has a most 

 beautiful and singular egg. In shape it exactly 

 resembles the figure of a balloon, one end being 

 very broad, and the other very tapering. It 

 shines with a metallic lustre, and has a curious 

 bronze-like aspect. 



The texture of the eggs of many families of the 

 swimming birds, (Natatores,) is characterised by 

 an appearance like ivory. That of the swan, both 

 by its colour and smoothness, has a strong resem- 

 blance to an oval of unpolished ivory, the texture 

 being of the smooth and soft-feeling character 

 peculiar to that substance. The eider duck's egg is 

 another beautiful example of the same fact. The 

 egg also of the common duck bears this character. 

 Now and then, however, a remarkable exception 

 occurs in the character of the duck's egg. Several 

 singular specimens of this kind exist in various 

 collections; in one inspected by the writer the 

 egg presented nothing of the usual ivory smooth- 

 ness, but bears a strong resemblance to the rough 

 aspect of the rind of an orange ; its colour was 

 also black, or a beautiful brown. This roughness, 

 however, was merely an external coating, and could 



