Another strange, but unsupported belief, or dream, which I must think originated in a joke, or cram, from which imputation, the weight of Aristotle's authority does not relieve it,* is the notion that there are Hens in existence that lay more than one egg a day. One author says, there are Hens wild in Sumatra that lay three Eggs in a day; but he omits to state who watched these wild Hens to and from their nests. Another (Richardson) describing the Cochin China fowl (2nd Edition, p. 38,) says, "they are very prolific Hens; Mr. Nolan's frequently laying two, and, occasionally, three eggs on the same day, and within a few moments of each other." The statement is confirmed by Irish Arithmetic. "One of the Hens," he continues, "Bessy,' exhibited by her Majesty, laid 94 Eggs in 103 days," not quite three Eggs a day, according to our "calcule." But if this be a fact, there is no limit to the improvement, of which these double-barrelled Hens are capable, till by the aid of forcing and extra diet, they become, like Mr. Perkins's steam gun, able to discharge Eggs at the rate of several dozens in a minute.

Seriously, it is quite true that the Hen, like other creatures that usually produce but one at a birth, has an occasional tendency to produce twins; but I believe it will be found that such twins hitherto observed have been united in one shell, and not produced separately. Doubleyolked Eggs are well known to cooks, and to farmers' wives. Some with triple yolks occur now and then, but rarely. Twin chickens may have rarely proceeded from one Egg. The classic fable of Castor and Pollux looks like some such experience among the ancients; but those Eggs, being oversized, are usually rejected for hatching, and I remember no really authenticated instance of the kind, unless the reader be good-naturedly disposed to

* “Τίκτουσι δὲ καὶ οἰκογενεῖς ἔνιαι δὶς τῆς ἡμέρας. ἤδη δέ τινες λίαν πολυτοκήσασαι, ἀπέθανον διὰ ταχέων.”

"Some domestic Hens, also, bring forth twice in the day; and some, after having been very prolific, have died in consequence."History of Animals, Book vi., c. i.

accept a case from Aristotle as such. However, his idea of twinning in Hens evidently coincides with ours, in spite of his having asserted that some fowls lay twice a day. Τὰ δὲ δίδυμα τῶν ὠῶν, δύοἔ χει λέκιθους· ὧν τὰ μὲν δίειργει τὸν μὴ εἰς ἄλληλα συγκέχυσθαι τὰ ὠχρὰ, του λευκοῦ λεπτὴ διάφυσις· τὰ δὲ, οὐκ ἔχει ταύτην τὴν διάφυσιν, ἀλλὰ συμψαύουσιν· εἰσὶ δὲ ἔνιαι ἀλεκτορίδες, αἳ πάντα δίδυμα τίκτουσιν, ὡς ἐπὶ τούτων ὦπται τὸ περὶ τὴν λέκισθον συμβαῖνον· ὀκτωκαίδεκα γάρ τις τεκοῦσα, ἐξέλεφε δίδυμα· πλὴν ὅσα οὔρινα ἐγένετο, τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα, γόνιμα· πλὴν ὅσα τὸ μὲν, μεῖςον, τὸ δὲ, ἔλαττον γίνεται τῶν διδύμων· τὸ δὲ τελευταῖον, τερατώδες. Teparades. "Double Eggs, however, have two yolks, which sometimes, that they may not be confounded, are separated by a thin interstice of the white; and sometimes the two yolks are in contact with each other without this interstice. There are, also, some Hens that bring forth all their Eggs double, so that in these also, the above mentioned circumstance happens respecting the yolk. For a certain Hen having brought forth eighteen double Eggs, disclosed a chicken from each, those Eggs excepted which were unprolific. Two chickens also were disclosed from each of the double Eggs, but one of the chickens was larger than the other. But the last chicken that was disclosed was a monster."-History of Animals, book vi., chap. iii.-Taylor's Translation.

The following is a plausible,but by no means a convincing case. "At Monklaw, near Jedburgh, there was a Duck which laid two Eggs in a day. The fact was proved by locking the bird up, when one egg was found early in the morning, and another in the evening. This remarkable Duck was killed by a servant ignorant of its virtues."-Note to White's Natural History of Selbourne, Captain Brown's Edition, p. 291. Now Mowbray says "the Duck generally lays by night, or early in the morning, seldom after ten o'clock, with the exception of chilling and comfortless weather, when she will occasionally retain her Egg until mid-day, or the afternoon." Suppose then that the confined Duck, exercising her power of retaining her Egg (a

faculty often obstinately used by the Turkey-hen, if it be desired to make her lay in other places than she chooses), suppose the Duck had laid one, say at two in the morning, and another at ten in the evening of the same day, that could scarcely be called "laying two Eggs a day," unless the confinement had continued, and the same productiveness been manifested for several days in succession. It is here that proof of the habit fails. Now in regard to the other mode of twinning, the same Editor quotes a correspondent in Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, who says, "I have lately seen a preternaturally large, but perfect Goose's Egg, containing a smaller one within it; the inner one possessing its proper calcareous shell." is certainly a very singular production. We have frequently known shells to have two yolks, but this is the only instance we have met with of one Egg containing another entire one within it." Other instances, however, are known. A gentleman in my neighbourhood possesses one, if not two Hen's Eggs, each of which contains within itself another smaller Egg with a perfect and complete shell: confirming the statement that twins, in the case of Eggs, are inclosed in one common envelope, and not produced one immediately after the other, as in mammalia.

This

Mr. Alfred Whitaker says, "I find no room for criticism in your manuscript. Every fact asserted is borne out by my own experience, with the exception that I never saw an instance of one Egg containing another entire Egg within it. Double Eggs I have frequently seen. Their size, and frequently a sort of suture across and around the centre of the Egg, sufficiently indicate their twin nature. Many years ago (in my boyhood) I placed one of these double Eggs among a sitting of Eggs under a Hen. Two live chickens were brought up to the hatching point, but that labour appeared to be too much for their somewhat divided strength, and they were not actually born alive. The fact, however, shows that the Egg in question was a perfect twin Egg." This is a

very remarkable case, and deserved preservation in a Museum.

"Umbilicus ovis a cacumine inest, ceu gutta eminens in putamine."-Pliny, lib. x., c. xxiv. "The umbilical part of Eggs is within them from the top, as it were a drop projecting inside the shell." This evidently has a reference to the air-bubble. But I am in possession of an Egg of more than ordinary size, laid by a Buenos Eyres Duck, which has one end unclosed, terminating in a sort of membranous funnel, or a continuation of the lining membrane of the shell, giving the appearance of a divided umbilical cord.* An instance which is not unique. “On the day after my return from London, I was looking round my farm-yard, and found a fresh nest in a calves' stage with one egg in it. On taking it up my servant said, Here is something curious,' and I observed that the Egg was evidently double, and that a small portion of the large end of the shell was soft, and that from the centre of the soft part, a membranous substance was protruding, looking like a dried up umbilical cord. I opened the egg carefully, and found that this cord was attached to an oval sac within, of a dark colour, filling half the Egg, and that below this there was a perfect yolk. I took out this sac with the cord attached to it entire, and put it at once into spirits of wine. My surgeon, who is quite a naturalist and a very scientific man, was much interested with it. His impression was, that the sac contained a chick, and that incubation had been going on in the cloaca of the mother."-A. W.

As a tail-piece to this chapter may be mentioned the use of Eggs for adornment of the person. Mr. Martin Lister, of York, saith, "The Curruca or Hedge-Sparrow lays sea-green or pale-blue Eggs, which, neatly emptied and wired, I have seen fair ladies wear at their ears for pendants." To fair-haired, clear-skinned maidens, they

"The stalks of Eggs, whereby they grow to the ovarium, are not solid after the manner of the footstalks of fruits, but hollow and fistulous."-WILLUGHBY.

would be especially becoming; encased in gold filigree of Genoa, they might pass for turquoises of high price. The fanciful decorations of a bandeau of pearly shells, a flounce filled with fire-flies, and a necklace of Curruca turquoise, only require a beautiful wearer to set them off to the greatest advantage.

So much about Eggs for the present. People have often been astounded by the phenomena of latent heat; a greater marvel is the fact of latent life.