192 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



the edges, so as to provide for a hinge, and in this 

 manner, the egg-shells were converted into boxes, 

 which opened and shut at pleasure. The cut 

 represents some of these singularly ornamented 

 eggs. In Venice it was the custom to present 

 these eggs to ladies by young noblemen, who 

 would go to a great expense in having their por- 

 traits painted on the shells. In Germany they 

 ornament eggs in a still more ingenious manner. 

 Protecting certain parts of the shell by wax, or in 

 other ways, they exposed them to the chemical 

 action of dilute nitric acid ; the acid would, of 

 course, act upon the lime of the shell, and remove 

 it, so that all the parts not protected from its in- 

 fluence, would exhibit an engraved character, the 

 protected parts being plain. 



In an old MS., in the collection at the British 

 Museum, we have seen beautiful drawings of these 

 eggs, some of which are represented in the cut. 

 Evidently they were works of high art, being 

 gilded and painted with great skill and ingenuity. 

 In the same MS. are representations of a simpler 

 class of decorated eggs, which were taken from 

 some eggs painted by a convent of Italian nuns. 

 These eggs are painted with various emblems, and 



