CHAPTER IV 



THE EGG 



"T II THEN moistening your slices of bread with 

 V V egg, has it ever occurred to you to examine a 

 little the structure of what furnishes your repast? 

 I think not. To-day I am going to tell you some- 

 thing about this : I will show yon in detail this won- 

 der called an egg. 



* * First, let us examine the shell. In hens ' eggs it 

 is all white, as also in those of ducks and geese. 

 Turkeys ' eggs are speckled with a multitude of little 

 pale red spots. But it is particularly the eggs of 

 undomesticated birds that are remarkable for their 

 coloring. There are sky-blue ones, such as those of 

 certain blackbirds ; rose color for certain warblers ; 

 and somber green with a tinge of bronze is found, for 

 example, in the eggs of the nightingale. The color- 

 ing is sometimes uniform, sometimes enhanced by 

 darker spots, or by a haphazard sprinkling of pig- 

 ment, or by odd markings resembling some sort 

 of illegible handwriting. Many rapacious birds, 

 chiefly those of the sea, lay eggs with large fawn- 

 colored spots that make them look like the pelt of a 

 leopard. I will not dwell longer on this subject, in- 

 teresting though it may be, as in telling you the 



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