I 2 A J'A1»EK OX EGGS, 



pigment glands, they might be expected to be more regnhir in 

 position and better defined than they are, and to vary in co- 

 lour, not being always of some shade of red ; and the eggs of any 

 given species or indi\'idual ought to be more alike than they are 

 found to be. It is true that on some eggs the spots do present 

 a certain degree of regularity, as in the coloured rings presently 

 to be noticed; but this is capable of explanation without our 

 being obliged to have recourse to the hypothesis of the existence 

 of pigment glands in the lining membrane. 



Of the high degree of probability that the markings on eggs 

 are really of blood, I shall, in the sequel, endeavour to adduce 

 additional e\idence ; but here I would seek, before going further, 

 to answer the query, "Which end of the egg first comes to the 

 light ? This indeed is seemingly a very small matter, but a cor- 

 rect answer to it may help to elucidate the main question, Are 

 the markings really blood markings ? 



A discussion, as to which end of the egg is first laid, might 

 possibly incline oologists to range themselves in two opposite and 

 hostile camps; just as the (juestion, which end of the egg they 

 ought to begin to break when going to eat it, divided the Lil- 

 liputians into Big-Endians and Little-Enilians. 



Dr. Allen Thomson says that in the Common Fowl the small 

 end passes first, and fi'om what I have obsers'ed with regard to 

 the mode of laying proper to that bird I believe him to be quite 

 right; but he quotes two authorities already named who have 

 seen an egg reversed in its position in the oviduct. There is not 

 wanting, liowever, as I have said, some good reason to believe that 

 many birds lay their eggs so that the large end comes first ; and 

 Aristotle, no mean observer, says, in his ''History of Animals," 

 Book VI., cap. ii., 1, "In the egg itself there is a dilfercncc, for 

 one end is pointed, the other round. The round end is producccl 

 first." 



No dou])t there is trutli on botli sides : and Nature, if rightly 

 inteq)ret('d, appears to liavo established the princijde, at which, 

 after long and anxious inquiry and debate, the sagacious Lilli- 

 ])\itians arrived. They found that the '* end which is moat conve- 

 nient should be firat broken ;" and Nature seems to decliu*e that tlie 



