The Clythrae: The Egg 



material, flutes it, twists it into spirals, decks 

 it with chains of little pits and makes it up 

 into a scaly suit of armour, showing how na- 

 ture laughs at our paltry standards of value 

 and how well able she is to convert the sordid 

 into the beautiful. 



In the bird, the egg-shell is a tempo- 

 rary defensive cell which at hatching-time is 

 broken and abandoned and is henceforth use- 

 less. Made of horny matter or stercoral 

 paste, the shell of the Clythra and the Cryp- 

 tocephalus is, on the contrary, a permanent 

 refuge, which the insect will never leave so 

 long as it remains a larva. Here the grub 

 is born with a ready-made garment, of rare 

 elegance and an exact fit, a garment which 

 it only has to enlarge, little by little, in the 

 original manner described above. The shell, 

 shaped like a little barrel or thimble, is open 

 in front. There is nothing therefore to 

 break, nothing to cast aside at the moment 

 of hatching, except perhaps the actual en- 

 velope of the egg. Directly this membrane 

 is burst, the tiny creature is free, with a 

 handsome carved jacket, a legacy from its 

 mother. 



Let us indulge in a crazy dream and 

 imagine young birds which keep the egg- 

 shell intact, save for an opening through 

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