X02 Life and Love. 



albumen, which we know as the " white " of the 

 egg. As it moves along, the muscles of the ovi- 

 duct give it a spiral motion, and thus turning 

 around and around it becomes coated with the 

 elongated "white," or albumen; b in the diagram 

 marks the part of the oviduct where it receives the 

 albumen. 



Next it enters the part c where the lining of the 

 oviduct secretes a limy substance which forms 

 about it a wall, familiar to all as the egg-shell. 



Thus nourished and protected, the egg is laid, a 

 hard, firm, resisting, vaulted chamber, whose form 

 no architect could strengthen, so well are its arches 

 planned to sustain weight and resist pressure. 



The egg is laid, but the labor of love is not 

 ended. In the bird, sex-life is but part of its repro- 

 ductive history; parental love wakens to cherish 

 these helpless imprisoned beings. 



Oftentimes both parents feel an irresistible unde- 

 fined attraction for the life to emerge from those 

 marble walls. They look upon its prison and 

 know that their offspring cannot yet come to per- 

 fection without their loving aid. So upon the hard 

 eggs the parents sit, relieving each other; or, 

 where this is not the case, the mother devotes her- 

 self unsparingly to forward the interests of the 

 future life contained in them. 



A stupendous task it is, and a cruel one, this 

 compulsory, wearisome sitting upon the insensate 

 eggs, by a creature to whom motion is joy itself. 



