WITH BEAK AND CLAW 13 



to the gaily painted egg of the Guillemot. More 

 important still, the eggs were arranged under a 

 system of classification, which gave the Orders and 

 Families and Species of birds in their proper re- 

 lationship, the kind of nest made by each species, 

 the number of eggs in an average '^clutch" or nest- 

 ful, and their shape, size and coloring. 



Here was a provocative of knowledge! Of all 

 the birds which flitted round him in the shrubs and 

 trees of the forest or in the reeds of the marsh, 

 Shan could only identify those whose names 

 chanced to begin with the letters between DR A and 

 GYR. Grackles he knew, but Sparrows he did 

 not ; Flycatchers were familiar and Warblers quite 

 unknown. 



The eggs of birds, however, gave a clew, though 

 a meager one, since the eggs of many species of 

 birds are closely similar. Since the Encyclopaedia 

 gave the name of the Species as well as the 

 description of the egg, if Shan found a bird's nest 

 with a clutch of eggs in it, he could sometimes 

 learn to what species a bird belonged by observ- 

 ing the parent birds. 



Each nest he could trace as belonging to a 

 different species, then, was a link in this great 

 puzzle of Bird-land. Where interest and study 



