62 A PAPEK OX EGGS, 



at the time to have beeu left in the cloaca. The whole of this 

 light coating will be quite removed during the boiling of the 



The external coloured spots can also be easily removed by 

 scraping or even rubbing the surface. 



Dr. Thomson says that the small end of the egg is the first to 

 see the light. I have also seen the same position of the egg in 

 the oviduct, and have observed an egg, di-opped by a hen thiough 

 necessity, on a stone floor, indented at the small end, just as it 

 had fallen from the bii'd. Purkinje and Yon Baer are quoted by 

 Dr. Thomson as having seen an egg reversed in its passage, and 

 we can conceive of this taking place if we examine the parts 

 sometime after the death of the bird, for they then become so 

 flaccid that you can easily cause the egg to revolve in the duct. 

 Immediately after death however, and no doubt therefore during 

 life, the Qgg is almost always closely embraced by the contracted 

 walls of the oviduct. Nevertheless, it is possible, that by some 

 irregular disordered action of the muscular wall of the oviduct, 

 an egg may occasionally be turned quite round in that tube. 



There is reason, however, to believe, that in wild birds at 

 least, the large end is that which is most commonly laid first. 



I have seen the large end lying lowest in the oviduct on two 

 occasions, in a Hook and in a Peewit, and the small end lowest in 

 one case, in a Peewit. These as single instances cannot make a 

 rule and cannot prove anything. More satisfactory evidence of 

 the reasonableness of the above belief will be given further on, 

 and it may here suffice to say that analogy is in favour of the 

 large end being the first to come into the world, if it contains the 

 head end of the chick, which appears really to be the case; for in 

 Mammalia generally, and notably in the human race, the rule is 

 that the liead first presents itself and is bom, after Mliich the 

 rest of the ovum passes with comparative facility. 



It is natural to infer, on considering the condition and the 

 functions of the parts, tliat birds in the act of parturition, in 

 common with the liigher animals, must suff'er a certain amount 

 of inconvenience and of pain, particularly during the passage of 

 the shell-coated egg down the uterine portion of the oWduct, and 



