BIRDS. 109 



many a nest in low bushes within a couple of feet of the 

 ground, more especially on well-wooded slopes. On the 

 other hand, game-birds deposit their eggs on the ground ; 

 but Mr J. G. Millais ^ gives instances of the nests of both 

 pheasant and capercaillie high in trees. The doubtful 

 point is how the parents convey the young in safety to the 

 ground. Perhaps the most remarkable instance, however, 

 of deviation in this respect is to be found in one of the 

 sandpipers (^Helodromas och7'02Jus), w^hich is known on its 

 Continental breeding-grounds (it does not breed in these 

 islands) to lay its eggs in the deserted nest of thrush or 

 magpie, instead of building a primitive nest, like the rest 

 of the group, on or near the ground. From the elaborate 

 nest of the goldfinch or oriole, we find every grade of work- 

 manship, good, bad, and indifferent, down to the work of 

 the waders and game-birds, whose nests are often mere 

 depressions in the earth, and the seafowl that simply 

 deposit their eggs on a ledge, the nightjar that rears her 

 young on the bare earth, the cuckoo who billets her 

 eggs on other nests and leaves the duty of incubation, 

 and subsequently of rearing the chicks, to the owners. 



Of eggs, their shape and colouring, their size as com- 

 pared with that of the bird, their resemblance to their 

 surroundings, much has been written. Their 

 ' protective colouring more particularly has been 

 the subject of some learned treatises, and in no case more 

 than that of the cuckoo. One has it that the bird can 

 colour the coming egg to suit certain surroundings ; another 

 claims, with more probability, that, having laid the egg, 

 she flies along with the same in her bill until she comes 

 to some clutch to which it bears some sort of resemblance. 

 Personally, I have had the misfortune to take so many 

 dark-brown eggs of this bird from among the azure eggs 

 of the hedge-sparrow that these rival theories have lost 

 much interest for me. 



Another striking feature of the cuckoo's egg is its small 

 size compared with that of the bird, in which it furnishes 



1 Game-Birds, p. 17. 



