Chap. 74.] THE VAEIOUS KINDS OF EGGS. 
533 
for instance ; others are of a pale colour, as in the aquatic 
birds : others, again, are dotted all over with spots, as is the 
case with those of the meleagris ; others are red, like those of 
the pheasant and the cenchris. In the inside, the eggs of all 
birds are of two colours ; those of the aquatic kind have more 
of the yellow than the white, and the yellow is of a paler tint 
than in those of other birds. Among fish, the eggs are of the 
same colour throughout, there being, in fact, no white. The 
eggs of birds are of a brittle nature, in consequence of the 
natural heat of the animal, while those of serpents are supple, 
in consequence of their coldness, and those of fish soft, from 
their natural humidity. Again, the eggs of aquatic birds are 
round, while those of most other kinds are elongated, and taper 
to a point. Eggs are laid with the round end foremost, and 
at the moment that they are laid the shell is soft, but it imme- 
diately grows hard, as each portion becomes exposed to the air. 
Horatius Flaccus^^ expresses it as his opinion that those eggs 
which are of an oblong shape are of the most agreeable flavour. 
The rounder eggs are those which produce the female, the 
others the male. The umbilicaP^ cord is in the upper part 
of the egg, like a drop floating on the surface in the shell. 
(53.) There are some birds that couple at all seasons of the 
year, barn-door fowls, for instance ; they lay, too, at all times, 
with the exception of two months at mid-winter. Pullets lay 
more eggs than the older hens, but then they are smaller. In 
the same brood those chickens are the smallest that are 
hatched the first and the last. These animals, indeed, are so 
prolific, that some of them will lay as many as sixty eggs, 
some daily, some twice a day, and some in such vast numbers 
that they have been known to die from exhaustion. Those 
known as the Adrianae,"^^ are the most esteemed. Pigeons 
sit ten times a year, and some of them eleven, and in Egypt 
during the month of the winter solstice even. Swallows, 
15 B. ii. Sat. 4, 1. 12. " Lon^a quibus facies ovis erit, ille memento, 
Ut succi meUoris, et ut magis alba rotundis." 
16 Aristotle says just the reverse : but Hardouin thinks that the passage 
in Aristotle has been corrupted. 
^'^ This, Cuvier says, in reality is not the umbilical cord, but the ehalasis, 
a little transparent and gelatinous ligament, by which the yolk is suspended 
like a globe. The true umbilical cord of the bird only makes its appearance 
after an incubation of some days. 
IS Produced in the territory of Adria. See B. iii. c. 18. 
