A POT-HUNTER'S DEFIANCE 85 



who lay in holes, have pure white eggs ; Woodcock, 

 Snipe, and Plover, who lay on the ground, have 

 eggs protectively colored. 



"Even the exceptions partly support this rule, 

 for while Mourning Doves lay white eggs in open 

 nests, the father-bird and the mother-bird take 

 turns in sitting on the nest, so that the white eggs 

 are rarely exposed. Similarly, while the Grebes 

 also lay white eggs on open nests, it is their cus- 

 tom, when they leave the nest, to cover the eggs 

 with water-soaked vegetation of which the nest is 

 made. 



''There's one more thing, too, Shan," his in- 

 formant continued, ' ' and that is that eggs differ a 

 good deal in size and so forth upon whether the 

 young birds are altricial or precocial. Do you 

 know what that means 1 ' ' 



*'No," said Shan, 'T never heard the words." 



"An altricial bird," the stranger explained, "is 

 one that is hatched naked, blind, and helpless in 

 the nest and which would die unless fed and tended 

 by its parents. ' ' 



"Only little song-birds have young like that," 

 commented Shan." 



"Not at all," the other rejoined. "Baby Par- 

 rots are among the most helpless chicks in bird- 



