'An egg, an apple, and a nut, You may eat after any slut.'

That, however, is not quite true as regards eggs, for the shell being porous readily absorbs anything malodorous which is placed near it, so that it is not uncommon to meet with eggs tasting of onions; and I remember once having had served to me three mornings running eggs highly flavoured with paraffin through a careless servant having thrown the cloth with which she cleaned the lamps over the egg basket.* It is also believed that eggs are affected by the food consumed by the hens; and it is certain that portions of foreign bodies such as insects, seeds, small stones, etc., have been found in eggs, especially in ostrich eggs, the stones found in which have been polished and used as buttons or studs.

The ostrich egg is the largest egg at present known, but that of the giant dinornis of New Zealand exceeded it in size as much as the turkey's egg exceeds that of the hen. One of these gigantic eggs was exhibited, with the skeleton of the extinct bird, at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and a cast of one may be seen at the Natural History Museum, with an ostrich egg near it by way of comparison; but the dinornis egg is unique and unattainable, as well as uneatable, and we must be content with that of the ostrich as the largest now used for eating, one of which makes a tolerable meal for five or six people, being considered equal to twenty-four hens' eggs. It is, however, rather strong in flavour, but makes excellent sponge-cakes, pancakes, or omelets, and a find of ostrich eggs in the desert is matter of great rejoicing to the wandering bushman or the hungry traveller.

Besides the dinornis, there is another extinct bird, the great auk, which has left behind it two or three eggs, which are so much coveted as to fetch an extraordinary price; one of these famous eggs was sold a year or two ago for Rumour had it that it was stolen from one of the Paris museums during the troubles of 1848, but it is certain that it was sold a few years afterwards by a dealer in Paris to an English gentleman, in whose family it has remained until now. At this gentleman's death it fell into the hands of a married daughter, who resided near Reigate, but afterwards removed to near Brighton, taking the egg with her. It was lost trace of by ornithologists owing to this change of residence, and had quite recently once more been traced. The lady who owned it was induced to offer it for sale owing to what was thought the extraordinary price paid for another egg of the same bird, sold previously for £168.

* Eggs placed standing upright in salt may be kept good for weeks, and in China, salted goose eggs are highly esteemed as food for invalids.

We are not likely to find eggs of dinornis or great auk; but it is reported that eggs larger than that of the ostrich have occasionally been found in the deserts of Africa, and any traveller coming across such may find it a profitable investment, although not as an article of food, for as the bird which laid these eggs is unknown, and perhaps extinct, the eggs would probably be partially petrified, although it is possible that they may be found to be those of the gigantic ostrich recently discovered in the interior, a specimen of which has lately been forwarded as a present to the Queen.

Of eggs good for food we may mention, in addition to those of the hen, duck, turkey, goose, guinea-fowl, and plover, those of the penguin, which are much relished by sailors, and dwellers on the sea-coasts where these birds abound, as also the eggs of other sea-birds, although they are apt to have a somewhat rank and fishy flavour. The eggs of the turtle are eagerly sought by the epicure, and it is related that one gentleman, having found what he supposed to be a nest of them, took some home and cooked them, leaving the rest in the sand, but returning in a day or two for the remainder, found instead a number of lively young crocodiles, which would go far to prove that there is very little to choose between turtles' eggs and those of the crocodile, and probably those of snakes and lizards would be equally palatable if prejudice did not interfere with their consumption.

The Chinese are credited with a fondness for eggs half-rotten, but that is hardly to be believed when we remember the evil odour attached to them in this condition; they may, however, enjoy them with the chick in, even as many people will eat the young bees in the honey-comb, for it is possible to imagine that a half-hatched chicken may be palatable, but rotten eggs are certainly an abomination, which no gastronomic peculiarities could render endurable to a civilised taste, although they may not be worse than some other half-rotten comestibles which commend themselves to some palates. The Australians, when they find the eggs of the brush-turkey or the jungle-hen, make a hole in them lengthways, and lay them in hot ashes, and when they boil, eat the contents by means of a brush made of cane, with the end chewed. Should there be chicks in the eggs, as is often the case, they take them out, broil them on the ashes, and eat them after the other contents.

A bird, perhaps of the same species as the brush-turkey, and known in China as the Tabon, lays a very large egg in the sand of the sea-shore, leaving it to be hatched by the heat of the sun. These eggs are carefully sought, and are said to be best when stale, or with young birds in them.