diff --git a/_pytest/main.py b/_pytest/main.py
index 246470f01..0fd4cb029 100644
--- a/_pytest/main.py
+++ b/_pytest/main.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ name_re = py.std.re.compile("^[a-zA-Z_]\w*$")
 
 def pytest_addoption(parser):
     parser.addini("norecursedirs", "directory patterns to avoid for recursion",
-        type="args", default=('.*', 'CVS', '_darcs', '{arch}'))
+        type="args", default=('.*', 'CVS', '_darcs', '{arch}', '*.egg'))
     #parser.addini("dirpatterns",
     #    "patterns specifying possible locations of test files",
     #    type="linelist", default=["**/test_*.txt",
diff --git a/doc/en/customize.txt b/doc/en/customize.txt
index 0e7ddfdf9..ac263b1fa 100644
--- a/doc/en/customize.txt
+++ b/doc/en/customize.txt
@@ -97,9 +97,9 @@ Builtin configuration file options
         [seq]   matches any character in seq
         [!seq]  matches any char not in seq
 
-   Default patterns are ``'.*', 'CVS', '_darcs', '{arch}'``. Setting a ``norecursedirs``
-   replaces the default.  Here is an example of how to avoid
-   certain directories::
+   Default patterns are ``'.*', 'CVS', '_darcs', '{arch}', '*.egg'``.
+   Setting a ``norecursedirs`` replaces the default.  Here is an example of
+   how to avoid certain directories::
 
     # content of setup.cfg
     [pytest]