. Eggs: facts and fancies about them . chs. The eggs of the guillemot, stork andcormorant are often eaten. The larger the egg the larger the bird is a KINDS AND QUALITIES OF EGGS. general truth; the apteryx of New Zealand is,however, an exception. Birds which quit thenest soon after hatching are more fully de-veloped when hatched, hence come from a larger egg- That birds have existed whose eggs were ofenormous size has been proved by the discoveryof the shells. The eggs of the moa, an ancient bird of NewZealand, were very large; and those of theAepyornis maximus were equal to about onehundred
. Eggs: facts and fancies about them . chs. The eggs of the guillemot, stork andcormorant are often eaten. The larger the egg the larger the bird is a KINDS AND QUALITIES OF EGGS. general truth; the apteryx of New Zealand is,however, an exception. Birds which quit thenest soon after hatching are more fully de-veloped when hatched, hence come from a larger egg- That birds have existed whose eggs were ofenormous size has been proved by the discoveryof the shells. The eggs of the moa, an ancient bird of NewZealand, were very large; and those of theAepyornis maximus were equal to about onehundred and fifty of those of the common fowl,and had a long diameter of over a foot. Birds nesting is allowable in the interest ofscience, and collections of eggs increase in valueas the species decrease. This is shown by the price brought by a sin-gle egg of the great auk, which was sold inLondon in 1888 for 81,100. Only sixty-seven specimens of these eggs areknown to exist, though two hundred years agothe birds were plenty. QUEER EGGS. 103. QUEER EGGS. HE Hottentot makes a soup of locusteggs, and in Siam ants eggs areserved with curry. Eggs of reptiles, those of the lizard, boa con-strictor, crocodile, alligator and turtle are alsoeaten; the latter is considered a great luxury. Dr. Livingston, in his Explorations of theZambezi, says of crocodiles eggs: In taste they resemble hens eggs, with per-haps a smack of custard, and would be as highlyrelished by whites as blacks were it not fortheir unsavory origin in man-eaters. A dainty not generally known is the sea-egg ;that of the sea-urchin or strongylocentrotus. In this connection may be mentioned the edi-ble birds-nests of Java and Sumatra. The sea-swallows nests which hang on the rocks likewatch-pockets. 104 QUEEB EGGS. They are about the size of a goose egg, ofa thin fibrous substance like isinglass, of aslightly reddish color It is a great labor to clean them for dry they are brittle and wrinkled, andsell for twice thei
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