Commencing, then, “ab ovo,” Peter Belon discusses the properties of eggs; but into the processes of fecundation and hatching which he describes, I do not propose to enter, the gastronomic view of the question presenting more novelty. After apologising for the puerility of the subject, he tells us that in his time the French way of eating eggs (they have six hundred and eighty-five ways now, if the Almanach des Gourmands speaks sooth) was by breaking them at the small end and carefully replacing the shell when emptied into the platter; while the Germans, on the other hand--reminding us of Blefuscu and Lilliput--opened their eggs at the side and finished by smashing the shell; in which latter practice, says Belon, they followed the example of the ancients, who held it a thing of evil augury to leave the shells unbroken. Belon then proceeds to discourse on the numerous varieties of eggs, considering those of pigeons, ostriches, pea-hens, geese, and swans are ill-flavoured and indigestible,--not objecting to the eggs of the tortoise or turtle,--but giving the preference, like a person of taste, to those of the domestic fowl, which, he says, “are supposed by many in France to assist greatly in prolonging life;” and he instances the case of Pope Paul the Third, who used, with that end in view, to eat two new-laid eggs for breakfast every morning. As to their shape, he remarks that long eggs are supposed to be much better eating than round ones; but without insisting on this point, he has no hesitation in declaring that all are highly invigorating, as truffles are, and artichokes, and raw oysters. Artichokes, indeed, were so much esteemed in Belon’s time, that “no great nobleman feeling himself unwell would finish his dinner without them,”--eating them by way of dessert. Belon objects to hard boiled eggs, or such as are too much fried, “on account of their engendering bad humours,” but upon poached eggs (œufs pochéz) he looks with considerable favour. In all cases he prefers plain boiled eggs (time--three minutes and a quarter) to those which are roasted; notwithstanding the well-known proverb: “There’s wisdom in the roasting of eggs.” The best way of preserving eggs, he says, is to keep them in a cool place, bury them in salt, or dip them in brine.