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A WONDERFUL EGG. 

 By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S. 



THE particular egg about which I purpose writing 

 is not to be found in any of the famous collec- 

 tions on which oologists have spent fortunes, and for 

 the acquisition of which museums have set apart 

 large sums. No one ever spent upon it such fabulous 

 sums as have been paid for an egg of the Great Awk 

 or the extinct Dodo. Yet it is practically as seldom 

 seen, and as little known, as any of the unique eggs 

 which collectors covet so ardently and prize so highly. 



We usually think of eggs as consisting of a yolk 

 surrounded by albumen and enclosed in a hard shell 

 made of lime. The eggs of birds and fowls are our 

 types, but the egg before us has no chalklike shell. 

 Most eggs, together with their shells, are formed within 

 the body of the egg-bearing animal, but this egg 

 differs from almost every other kind in this respect, 

 ft is true that the egg itself is formed as usual in the 

 ovary, and passed through a tube known as the 

 oviduct, but the shell is fabricated by the animal 

 externally, and is slipped over the egg as it passes 

 out of the oviduct and is about to be deposited. 

 Eggs are very commonly laid in a nest more or less 

 elaborately constructed, and it is a rare thing for 

 only one egg to be laid during the season by each 

 individual. It has been correctly surmised that the 

 number of eggs laid by a bird or other animal bears 

 a close relation to the exigencies and dangers which 

 the young will be likely to encounter. Hence a 

 pigeon lays only a pair of eggs, while the thrush 

 deposits some half-dozen in its nest, and partridges, 

 pheasants, tits, and other birds, lay from a dozen to a 

 score. Then we find that herrings and other fishes 

 lay enormous quantities of eggs as compared with 

 many fresh-water species. The egg I am describing 

 is never laid in a well-formed nest, and as a rule it is 

 found at a considerable distance from its nearest 

 neighbour. As it is not laid in the open air, on the 

 branches of trees (as the eggs of many insects are), 

 or on the surface of the soil, but in damp places 

 under the bark of trees, under stones by streams and 

 ponds, or deep down in the moist ■ soil, special 

 provision has to be made for its development amid 

 such peculiar surroundings. If the eggs of a bird or 

 fowl be varnished so as to exclude the air, or buried 

 in soil at a considerable depth, the young will never 

 be hatched ; yet here is an egg which can only be 

 hatched -when it is kept moist and cool, and one 

 which may be buried at a depth of some inches or 

 even feet and yet retains its vitality. 



Our egg is seldom more than a quarter of an inch 

 in length, and as it is usually oval the shortest 

 diameter is only about half the length. It was long 

 ago pointed out that eggs almost invariably remain 

 during the hatching period the same size as they were 

 when first extruded ; but here is a curious exception 

 to the rule. We should look with amazement on a 



pigeon's egg which increased in size till it became 

 as large as a hen's egg during the time when the 

 mother bird was sitting, but this is exactly what 

 happens in the egg before us. It both lengthens 

 and widens, and we shall have to enquire how this 

 is possible. 



The naturalist is already well aware of the fact 

 that when an animal regularly lays a large quantity 

 of eggs of minute dimensions the offspring is almost 

 invariably unlike its parent, and has to undergo 

 sundry transformations, changes, and developments, 

 before arriving at any degree of perfect resemblance 

 to the adult form. Conversely, as in the case of 

 birds, when a few relatively large eggs are laid, the 

 young usually emerges with a strong resemblance to 

 its progenitor. The reason is obvious. A good deal 

 of material is needed within the egg in order that a 

 perfectly developed brood may emerge, and when the 

 parent is compelled, through the struggle for ex- 



Fig. 60. — Bird's Egg. Fig. 61. — Ege of Worm. 



(Magnified.) 



Fig. 62.— Egg distended by young worm ready to emerge. 

 (Section highly magnified.) 



istence, to launch a bevy of young on the sea of life, 

 it cannot possibly fill the pockets of each (to speak 

 metaphorically) with the almighty dollar, or provide 

 that its offspring shall be started in life as are the 

 progeny of individuals whose dangers are fewer and 

 whose resources are more abundant. If we apply 

 this argument to the egg in question we may con- 

 clude that its enemies are comparatively few. The 

 colour of the horny egg-capsule is usually either a 

 delicate olive-green or a light brown, and well har- 

 monises with its surroundings. The egg is, relatively 

 to the size of the parent, large, and the number 

 deposited comparatively small, while the young on 

 emergence is found to be an exact copy of the 

 original, a perfect reproduction of the parent. 



It seems somewhat curious that an egg possessing 

 so many peculiarities should have been almost abso- 

 lutely ignored by scientific men and naturalists gene- 

 rally, the more so as it is easily obtained and readily 

 examined. So far as I have been able to find during 



