252 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Are we to explain this by saying that the lower forms of 
birds, appreciating only the simple colours of such things as bare 
ground and sea, lay eggs whose colour is the result of the effect 
of these things on the parent’s brain ; while the higher forms, 
capable of being impressed with more brilliant and complicated 
surroundings, on account of their higher esthetic faculties, 
therefore lay eggs more beautifully coloured and marked? And 
if so, is it all unconscious? It is almost impossible to ascribe 
the proceedings of the Cuckoo, as suggested by Mr. Lucas, to a 
course of purely unconscious actions. But if there is conscious- 
ness about it, we must ascribe the varieties in the eggs of such 
birds as the Guillemot to the variety of objects which attract the 
attention of different Guillemots. 
Is one egg streaked because the bird which laid it was more 
influenced by the contemplation of a piece of dry sea-weed than 
by any other neighbouring object? Once admit an element of 
consciousness, and there is no knowing where to stop. But 
without following the hypothesis of Mr. Lucas to its results, let 
us look at the root of the whole matter. 
Do external objects around the hen bird really affect the 
colour of her eggs ? 
Let us apply the theory, as Mr. Lucas asks us, to “ birds 
which breed easily in confinement.” 
The Common Rock Dove is a natural instance. What can 
be more different than the surroundings of these three—Columba 
livia nesting in a cave in a rocky cliff by the sea; a semi-wild 
Pigeon nesting on a pillar of St. Paul’s; and a pair of Fantails 
in an open wicker cage in a ladies’ drawing room ? Yet their 
eggs are all alike—quite white. 
Take the Canary. It is stated in ‘ The Gentleman’s Recrea- 
tion,’ published in 1677, that Canaries were at that time regularly 
imported from Germany. If so, surely the egg in the course of 
over two hundred years might be expected to have altered in 
appearance considerably. Ought it not to be brown, from the 
colour of the interior of its cage? or reddish, from the sand in 
its tray? But such is not the case. 
I would not, then, go so far as to say that external objects 
have no influence upon the colouring of the eggs laid by a 
bird, for, undoubtedly, mental and nervous conditions fre- 
quently produce chemical bodily changes ; but at present there 
