202 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OP DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



five hundred eggs in a day. Not less than a thousand 

 dozen o£ these eggs are conveyed to the port of Laun- 

 ceston by boats in the season, and about as many more 

 find their way to the capital, Hobart Town, by vessels 

 calling at the islands, while large numbers are consumed 

 on the spot, so that from two to three thousand dozen 

 must be obtained annually. A few years ago nineteen 

 hundred dozen were sent direct to Melbourne, but the 

 shipment there has not been renewed. 



The aborigines of Australia collect the eggs of wild 

 fowl, and it is no uncommon sight to see a bark canoe so 

 full of eggs that there is only just room for one person 

 to stand in it. The eggs of the ibis or bran are those 

 which are procured in the greatest number in New South 

 Wales. They are of a white colour, rather sharp at one 

 end and about the size of a turkey's egg. The albumen 

 is, however, quite different from that of any other egg, 

 being, even when boiled, pellucid, gelatinous, and fat in 

 appearance, and very small in quantity in comparison 

 with the yolk. It is not particularly palatable, and is 

 only used as a makeshift when neither hen nor duck eggs 

 can be procured. 



The eggs of the albatross {Biomedia- fuliginosa), which 

 average about a pound in weight, are much esteemed by 

 the sealers. 



A large lake called the Hoister Meer, between Utrecht 

 and Amsterdam, is much frequented by birds, and the 

 nests of the cormorants and spoonbills are robbed of the 

 eggs systematically twice a week during the months of 

 May and June. 



The natives of Celebes come for fifty mUes round to a 

 large bay to obtain the eggs of the Malee birds {Megapode), 

 which are esteemed a great delicacy, and when fresh are 

 indeed delicious. They are richer than hens' eggs, and 

 of a fine flavour; each one completely fills an ordinary 

 teacup, and forms, with bread or rice, a very good, 

 meal. 



Eggs of Reptiles.— The eggs of most of the species of 

 tortoises are excellent eating, being both nutritious and ; 



