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and the white which contains the embryo, or at least 

 some portion of the embryo of the future bird, is a 

 pellicle of so very pure a texture that it is hardly 

 discoverable. Well, it is brought to a certain stage 

 of maturity by the action of the parent bird, just as a 

 seed is ripened by the action of the parent plant. In 

 that state it is an independent being, and is separated 

 from its connexion with the parent. 



External causes to stimulate it into action are 

 all that are now required for bringing it to the same 

 state as the parent, but it must have the stimulus of 

 these, otherwise it not only remains inactive, but 

 becomes putrid yields to the laws of matter, and 

 passes into the mass of materials. It may be kept 

 perfect for a considerable time, if the air is com- 

 pletely excluded, but there is reason to suppose that 

 it would in time undergo internal decomposition 

 even then, in much less time than the seed of a plant, 

 if so protected, would take before it lost the power 

 of germination. 



But still the egg is a very wonderful thing ; and 

 were it not that we are so familiar with it, we would 

 go farther to see it than to see most of the subjects 

 which engage our attention. It is handsome in its 

 form, and every way beautiful to look at ; so that a 

 collection of eggs forms by no means an uninterest- 

 ing cabinet if the possessor can tell the tales of 

 the birds. But the wonderful part of the matter is, 

 that a body of the form of a pebble, and consisting 

 of a thin shell of lime, lined with a soft membrane, 

 and having within it first a transparent and then a 

 yellow jelly, should have the power, by the action 

 of heat and air alone, of evolving a vast number 

 of animal organs and substances, all differing from 

 each other in different kinds of eggs; but never 

 deviating so far from the characters of the parent 

 birds as that they cannot be instantly discerned to 

 belong to the same species, and display to a very 

 great extent the same phenomena, and the same 



