EGGS OF VARIOUS KINDS AS FOOD. 195 



•duced the custom of preserving cooked those articles 

 which could be neither eaten or sold. They were not 

 •coloured before the reign of Louis XIV. The first person 

 who sold them red was a man named Solirfene, established 

 at " the descent from the Pont-Neuf, near the Samari- 

 taine." That innovation had a great success, and St. 

 ■Simon informs us in his " Memoires," that the custom 

 was on Easter Eve to raise in the cabinet of the Grand 

 Monarque, pyramids of coloured eggs, which his Majesty 

 afterwards presented to his courtiers. Since that period 

 the community has undergone so many improvements 

 that it is no longer eggs, properly so called, but boxes 

 with unexpected contents, jewel cases, sometimes costing 

 as high as two or three thousand francs, which are pre- 

 sented. 



Macfarlane, in his " Southern Italy," mentions an 

 amusing mistake of a hurried tourist, who, happening 

 to be a day or two at Naples during Easter week, made 

 a brief remark in his note-book that, contrary to the 

 general habit of their species, all the Neapolitan hens 

 laid red eggs ! 



Ostrich Eggs. — Passing from the ordinary domestic 

 poultry, let us now glance at the huge eggs of the ostrich, 

 which may ere long be more generally utilised for food. 



As many as sixty eggs are sometimes found in and 

 around an ostrich nest ; but a smaller number is more 

 common. Each female lays from twelve to sixteen, 

 some say twenty-five to thirty eggs, in August and 

 September. But it often happens that several couples 

 tinite to hatch together. 



The eggs of each pair are disposed in a heap, always 

 surmounted by a conspicuous one which was the first 

 laid, and serves a special purpose. When the " delim," 

 or male bird, perceives that the moment of hatching has 

 arrived, he breaks the egg which he deems most matured, 

 and at the same time he bores with great care a small 

 hole in the surmounting egg. This serves as the first 

 food for the nestlings, and for this purpose, though open, 

 it continues long without spoiling, which is the more 



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