212 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



inches in length and about one and three-quarters 

 in breadth ; the two ends were of the same shape. 

 The hen not unfrequently lays a double-yolked 

 egg, and sometimes eggs without any yolks at all. 

 Sometimes also, as has already been remarked, 

 eggs are laid without the shell, and in all such 

 instances are enveloped in a membrane like fine 

 vellum. 



The pheasant, which is almost as much under 

 the influence of domestication as the barn-door 

 fowl, although it pleases our sportsmen to con- 

 sider it a wild bird, frequently lays eggs as 

 remarkable as those of the hen. Mr. Hewitson 

 possesses some very remarkable deformities of this 

 kind; one in particular is very singular in its 

 appearance. It is cylindrical in shape, about two 

 inches and a half long, and an inch and a half in 

 diameter. Occasionally, eggs of this bird are 

 found with a division across the middle. One of 

 these is described as having given birth to a young 

 bird, while the other half was found, on the 

 division being broken through, to contain an 

 entire egg of a globular form, having a very hard 

 shell, but containing, as usual, white and yolk. 



Among other eccentric varieties of eggs is the 



