May C. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
107 
I am sure it is bacl policy on the part of the committee. 
The insignificant sum of T12 will give a 10s. ancl a 5s. prize 
in each class, and this will he greatly lessened, if not en¬ 
tirely covered, by the entries, and many, very many, visitors 
will be attracted who would not otherwise have attended. 
Again, in some exhibitions where Figeons are to be re¬ 
ceived, there is a meagreness in the classes fatal to an 
attractive show. Without naming any particular exhibition, 
I may allude to some where the very attractive class for 
new' and distinct varieties is absent. This is a serious 
error, the class is one usually well filled and always com- ( 
mands attention; for, are net the beautiful Trial Swallows, . 
the striking parti-coloured Magpies, the Hyacinths, the 
Porcelains, the Frill Backs, and many others, worthy of 
being exhibited ? In the opinion of many persons they are 
more beautiful than several of the standard varieties; and I 
do not see how any race of domestic animals is to be im¬ 
proved, if encouragement is not offered to those who attempt 
to introduce superior breeds. I know, at the present time, 
of a variety unrivalled for beauty of feathers, unsurpassed ! 
(except by the largest Runts) in size, and of unequalled [ 
prolificacy ; several of the pairs having leared three nests : 
each this year, yet the owner refrains from exhibiting them 
because little favour is shown to new varieties. Let me j 
express a hope that this may not continue, that Pigeons i 
may grace every Poultry Show, and that the distinct varieties | 
may always have a class for their especial benefit and 
encouragement.— Columba. 
ON THE OCCURRENCE OF ONE PERFECT 
EGG WITHIN ANOTHER. 
A very remarkable egg was recently submitted to me for ! 
examination, which had been laid two days previously by a 
common hen. In size it resembled a goose-egg, but was ; 
somewhat irregular in shape; in the largest direction it 
measured nine inches in circumference, and seven-and-a- 
half in the smallest girth; the shell was thin and fragile, 
and it was cracked on one side when discovered in the nest. I 
On enlarging the aperture slightly, I observed, in the inte¬ 
rior, the shell membrane of about the usual degree of thick¬ 
ness, the white, a yolk of usual size, and, to my great grati¬ 
fication, a second shell alongside the yolk. 
On perceiving this, I immediately placed the whole in 
water, to support the different parts, and opened the outer j 
shell to a sufficient extent to allow me to remove the inner 
one, which I found to be that of a perfect egg, with its ' 
membrane, white, yolk, cicatricula, &c., complete; the only 
peculiarity respecting it being that the shell was rather 
thinner than ordinary. I need scarcely say that I regarded 
the phenomenon with great interest. Such a case never ! 
before came under my notice, although some well-authen- 1 
ticated instances are on record; and there is a specimen in 
the Hunterian Collection. Apart from the mere curiosity 
of the case, it is of much interest, as throwing light upon 
some of the functions of the egg organs ; and its existence 
proves what some have been much inclined to doubt, 
namely, the possibility of a fowl laying two eggs in one day. 
H aving, in a previous volume of The Cottage Gardener, 
described, at some length, the structure and functions of the 
egg producing organs, I will only repeat here that the yolk 
is produced in an organ termed the ovary, and that each 
yolk, as perfected in size and development, is received into 
the open extremity of a long tube, termed the oviduct, or j 
egg-passage ; and, as it passes along this tube, it receives 
around it the various accessory parts, the most important of 
which are the white, the shell membranes, and, lastly, the 
shell, these being each formed or secreted by different parts 
of the egg-passage. The only mode in which such a mon¬ 
strosity as I have been describing could have been formed 
would be as follows :—A yolk, in the accustomed manner, is 1 
received by the egg-passage, and enveloped in white and 1 
membrane, and reaches that part where the shell is se¬ 
creted; but, before the shell is fully formed, a second yolk 
is received by the egg-passage, invested with the white, and 
passes to that part where the membrane is formed ; its pre¬ 
sence there, along with the egg lower down the tube, excites 
an unusual and abnormal action ; and the first egg is, by a 
retrograde movement of the passage, brought back to the 
membrane secreting part of the tube, and then the whole is 
invested with the outer membrane, which, passing through 
the shell-forming portion, receives the outer shell. In no 
way can the production of such an anomaly be explained, 
but by supposing the occurrence of a retrograde action in 
the egg-passage—a circumstance of the occasional existence 
of which I am fully convinced from numerous dissections of 
diseased hens. 
With regard to the laying of two eggs in a day, if we 
imagine, in the previous case, that the reception of the 
second yolk had been delayed but a short time, the first egg 
would have been completely shelled, and then laid, and the 
second would have followed at a short interval. But, al¬ 
though thus easily capable of explanation, such a condition 
can only be regarded as the result of an undue and violent 
excitement—a state of affairs to be prevented, rather than 
encouraged, by those who wish well to the health of their 
fowls. As to the alleged circumstance that some fowls lay 
two eggs at one time, it is difficult to conceive how it can be 
accomplished, as that part of the oviduct where the shell is 
formed is only of sufficient length to contain one egg.—W. 
B. Tegetmeier, Tottenham. 
THE LAST SHREWSBURY POULTRY-SHOW. 
“After repeated applications to the Secretary of the 
Shrewsbury Agricultural Exhibition by myself and others 
(I fear all who have claims) for payment of money for 
prizes and sales, our letters are now' treated with silent con 
tempt. As this Show was held in December last, it is 
almost time it was paid. Does our remedy lie against the 
Secretary or the Committee ?— George C. Peters, Moseley, 
near Birmingham.'' 
[Be have headed this “The last Shrewsbury Poultry- 
Show,” not merely because it was the one which took place 
in 1855, but because it is the last that ever will take place, 
unless the monies due to exhibitors are honourably and 
promptly paid to them. Tt may have been a source of loss 
to the Committee; but that Committee ought to have been 
prepared to submit to such loss when they publicly an¬ 
nounced themselves as having accepted the office. We 
trust that there will be no need for legal proceedings; but 
if there is such need, nothing would induce us to refrain 
from directing our attorney to proceed against any member 
of the Society’s officials against whom w'e could best estab¬ 
lish our claim. Who that would be, must depend upon w'hat 
correspondence took place, who of the officials attended at 
the Show, and other circumstances.] 
A SPARROW HAVING THE CANARY'S SONG. 
A most interesting circumstance, connected with Natural 
History, has just come to my knowledge, singularly denot¬ 
ative how very much the general habits of a bird may 
be thoroughly changed by early education. A friend of 
mine, long accustomed annually to breed large numbers of 
canaries, (simply from the pleasure he derived from so 
doing) has a son w r ho seonjs to inherit his father’s pre¬ 
disposition in such matters. This child, (for he is very 
young) it seems, was his father’s constant attendant at those 
times when he was looking after the welfare of the canaries, 
watched all his motions very narrowly, and scarcely a single 
day passed over without the youngster expressing a very 
anxious desire to appropriate some nest or other of partially 
fledged birds to his own especial case and supervision. 
This arrangement not meeting with approval, by some 
means (not explained) it appears he obtained a nest of the 
common house sparrow, and, triumphantly asserting them 
to be “ his oivn," brought then) into the house, and begged 
his mother to allow him to keep them ; “ For father kept 
canaries;” and promising all kinds of good behaviour if Ins 
parents should grant the much coveted permission. Though 
at first refused, and still more peremptorily on the return of 
his father, the lad’s grief and tears soon decided the cause 
favourably to his own wishes, more particularly as it was at 
the time supposed the sparrows “would never trouble them 
long,’’ on account of their present immaturity. Food was at 
