198 ANIMAL FOOD EESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS, 



abouts they are deposited. In Paraguay the eggs of the 

 Tero-tero, or " pluvier arm^/' are good eating, but the 

 flesh of the bird is said to be tough. 



According to Father Hue, the Chinese make a great 

 use of pheasants' eggs as a cosmetic to give their hair 

 lustre and brilliancy. 



Eggs of Sea Fowl. — The eggs of wild birds are not 

 very generally eaten in this country, but in many 

 localities those of sea-fowl are largely consumed, and a- 

 considerable trade is carried on in gulls' eggs. Those of 

 the common foolish guillemot {Uria troile) seem to be 

 accounted delicacies, notwithstanding their fishy diet» 

 They are thick in the shell, which has a dull appearance. 

 The bird only lays one egg, of a pale green, blotched 

 and stained with black and dark brown. It may be- 

 incidentally remarked here that birds which build open 

 nests uniformly have coloured eggs, and those which 

 possess concealed or covered nests have white eggs. 



Without going into the discussion of naturalists, who 

 see in the diflferent colours of eggs a certain relation to^ 

 circumstances favourable to concealment, it may be ob- 

 served that the blotched egg laid by the Hydrochelidon 

 fuliginosa, usually known as the egg-bird, is found 

 among sticks and dried leaves of the suriana, whilst the 

 white eggs of the boobies and petrels are deposited in 

 hoUows of the coral rocks, amid sand and chalky dung. 

 There is one curious coincidence between the eggs of 

 the noddy tern {Anmis stolidus, Linn.) and the peculiari- 

 ties of the nest, that must not, however, be unremarked. 

 The elaborate pile of sticks, slightly hollowed, in which 

 they deposit their eggs, is always embellished with 

 broken sea shells, speclded and spotted like the eggs.. 

 Audubon records the same occurrence in the nests of the 

 ■ noddy terns he inspected in the Florida Keys. The 

 obvious suggestion for this curious prevalence of in- 

 stinct is deceptiveness, arising from similarity between ' 

 the egg shell and the sea shell. 



For many kinds of cooking the eggs of wild birds, 

 are less valuable, though in the preparation of some= 



