204 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



many congenerous birds bear to each other, espe- 

 cially in the wading and swimming divisions, and 

 at the same time the remarkable variety in the 

 superficial markings which even those taken from 

 the same nest frequently present, has suggested 

 one simple and easy mode of deception. Thus, 

 for example, an egg of the great black-backed 

 gull (larus marinus), differing perhaps slightly in 

 colour from the more usual type, will be labelled 

 ' Glaucous Gull ' in the travelling boxes of these 

 crafty pedlars ; that of the common tern, ' Gull- 

 billed tern,' or ' Roseate tern ; ' a snipe's egg of 

 unusual dimensions will figure as belonging to 

 the ' Great, or Solitary Snipe,' while a diminu- 

 tive example of that of the landrail will be in- 

 scribed ' Spotted Crake,' or ' Baillon's Crake,' &c. 

 But the art is carried to a still higher pitch of 

 refinement. The exterior coat of many of the 

 commoner eggs among which those of the goose 

 and turkey play a conspicuous part is first re- 

 moved by some chemical process. The new sur- 

 face is then stained of an appropriate ground tint, 

 and an elaborate and cunningly devised tracery, 

 exactly resembling the blotches and ramifications 

 on the egg which it is intended to represent, is 

 painted upon it, in some adhesive body colour, 

 which when complete, and coming from the hands 

 of a finished professor, would not only pass muster 



