EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 



BY R. KEARTON. 



"IO a casual observer there may be 

 nothing remarkable or interest- 

 ing, perhaps, in the shape, size, 

 or colour of birds' eggs ; yet to 

 the warm admirer of Nature 

 and her works what wonders of 

 design are manifested in the 

 construction of a common egg! 

 These traces of design afford the 

 best possible evidence that there 

 is a supreme agency at work, 

 even if they have been brought 

 to their present state of perfec- 

 tion by the process of evolution. 

 How long would it have taken 

 some of the world's great philo- 

 sophers to discover the best shape 

 of a bird's egg, in order to pre- 

 vent it rolling off a flat surface, 

 such as a ledge of rock, when 

 moved by the terrible gusts of 

 wind that sweep over high lati- 

 tudes, or perhaps roughly moved 

 by the parent-bird suddenly flut- 

 tering off to save her life in the presence of danger? 

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