xii Contents. 



CHAPTER III. 

 SOME REMAEKABLE NESTS AND EGGS {continued). 



PAGE 



Open-topped Xests— The Artfulness of the Carrion Crow — 

 Covered Xests— Diggers of Tunnels and Pits— The Wicked 

 Boy who Stopped up Sand-Martins' Nesting Holes— Builders 

 in Holes in Trees, Rocks, Walls, and Banks— Birds that 

 Hiss Avhen their Xe:>its are :\[olested— Birds that Cover their 

 Eggs when Leaving their Xests— Biids that it is Dithcult 

 to See — The Eider Duck on her Xest— I'.irds that do with- 

 out Xests— More Exceptions to Xesting Rules— Differences 

 in Egg-shells— Sizes of Eggs— Shape as Tending to Pre- 

 servation—Colour and ^larkings — Xumber of Eggs Laid 

 by Birds of Different Species— The Cuckoo and its Eggs — 

 Incubation . . . . . . . . . .56 



CHAPTER IV. 

 YOUNG : HOW THEY ARE FED AND PROTECTED. 



How Chicks of Various Species Differ— Chicks that are 

 Covered with Down and those that are not— The Baby 

 Oyster- Catcher that had a Great Fall— The First Week in 

 the Life of a Baby Blackbird — " :\Ie Won't Sit \ "—Oyster- 

 Catchers Watching over their Chicks — AViles of Parent 

 Birds to Decoy Intruders from their Young — Bravery of 

 Birds in Defending their Young— Daring Ducklings— How 

 Parent Birds Work to Support their Families— A Tit-bit 

 for Mother — Young Rooks Learning to Forage for Them- 

 selves — Wasteful Birds— Times of Plenty— A Welcome 

 Homo for Mother and Father — What Young Birds do when 

 they Leave Home — The Cuckoo and its Bad Habits . . 92 



CHAPTER V. 

 THE WONDERS oK FEATHERS AND FLIGHT. 



Man's Attempts to Fly — A Feather under the Microscope 

 — Stages of Growth— Feathers of a Common Curlew — How 



