smaller birds, I am much inclined to think that their powers 

 of incubation are limited, and that the usual number of eggs 

 only, (which it is allotted them to lay,) are sufficiently de- 

 veloped to be brought to maturity at one time. Those birds, 

 however, (which under ordinary circumstances would only 

 breed once in a year,) have nevertheless, if deprived of their 

 eggs, the power of producing, a short time afterwards, a second 

 and even a third set ; but usually diminished in their numbers, 

 as well as in their size. 



That the colouring of birds' eggs is an animal matter, and 

 dependent upon the health of the bird, there can be little 

 doubt. The day previous to their being produced, and after 

 the shell has become hard, they are, in those birds which T 

 have examined, pure white ; a large proportion of the colour 

 is also easily rubbed off, for some time after they are laid. 

 Thus we find in their eggs the same want of colour, which is 

 also occasionally observable in the feathers of white varieties 

 of birds. Fear, or any thing which may affect the animal 

 functions, exerts its influence upon the colour also. The eggs 

 of birds which I have captured on their nests, during the time 

 that they were laying, and kept in close confinement, have 

 thus been deprived of much of their colour. 



The colour of eggs, as well as their size, is dependent upon 

 the age of the bird ; and during a few years after which it has 

 first become capable of production, they increase in size and 

 intensity of colour, till its arrival at full maturity. 



That the varied and beautiful hues which adorn the eggs of 

 birds, are given them by the God of nature, as a protection 

 firom their enemies, by resembling the various surfaces upon 



