FOR INCUBATION. 123 



that jproof of the Tidbit fails.* Now in regard to the other 

 mode of twinning, the same Editor quotes a correspondent in 

 London's Magazine of Natural History, who says, "I have 

 lately seen a preternaturally large, but perfect Goose's Egg, 

 containing a smaller one within it ; the inner one possessing 

 its proper calcareous shell'' This is certainly a very singular 

 production. " We have frequently known shells to have two 

 yolks, but this is the only instance we have met with of one 



* The subjoined statement is from a friend on whose strict veracity 

 I can quite rely. "In the summer of 1849, I had a Cock and Hen 

 Malay. I kept them in a house with a little yard attached to it, 

 and am certain that no other Fowls could get to them, as the whole 

 was netted over. I have no other prodigy to tell of this Hen (which 

 was a bad layer before the occurrence, and not a layer at all since 

 it) but that she layed four Eggs within forty-eight hours. Thus : 

 on Thursday evening at six o'clock there were no Eggs ; the next 

 morning there were two ; on Saturday morning there was one more; 

 and on Saturday evening before six o'clock another Egg was layed. 

 Now this was laying four Eggs certainly within forty-eight hours, 

 but it may have been within a still shorter space of time. I could 

 not be mistaken respecting the Eggs, because I then had only two 

 mongrel Hens, which layed very taper Eggs, and some S. Hamburg 

 Hens, which layed purely white Eggs, whereas the Malay layed very 

 large and yellow ones ; her Eggs were likewise of a peculiar shape, 

 all of them having a small indenture or mark round them just about 

 the middle. If all the Hens had been kept together in one poultry- 

 yard, I should have had no more doubt as to which laid the Eggs in 

 question, than I have now. I have told perhaps half-a-dozen people 

 of the circumstance, but have reason to think that nobody believed 

 me ; and this, added to the opinions expressed in your book, would 

 certainly have prevented me from sending you the above account, 

 but that I am perfectly convinced of its correctness. I kept the Hen 

 for three months after this occurred, and fed her upon corn, green 

 food, with meal now and then, but she never laid another Egg whilst 

 I had her." G. P. S. I can only suppose this to be a case of re- 

 tention of the Egg from disease, or other cause, and is quite the 

 contrary to being an instance of unusual fecundity. 



