BIRDS' EGGS 



now only found m deep seclusion, were laid m the 

 open after the manner of the lapwing's, cuilew's, 

 or golden plover's, the destruction of the species 

 would speedily follow, and we may therefore con- 

 clude that some protective agency has been at 

 work. 



The size of eggs in relation to that of the parent 

 has also furnished a theme for the consideration of 

 the curious. Here the most striking irregularities 

 occur. The guillemot and the raven are themselves 

 of about equal size ; their eggs vsxy as ten to one. 

 There is a vast difference in the relative sizes of the 

 snipe and partridge ; their eggs are approximately 

 of equal bulk. Hewitson long ago wrote : — 



" The reason of this great disparity is, ho we vex, 

 obvious ; the eggs of all those birds which quit the 

 nest soon after they are hatched, and are conse- 

 quently moxe fully developed at their birth, are 

 very large." 



How so distinguished an ornithologist with the 

 facts before him could have reached so untrue a 

 conclusion it is difficult to say. In some of the 

 most obvious cases of disparity, take those of the 

 pheasant and the partridge on the one hand, and of 

 the guillemot on the othei ; the young of the two 

 former come forth plumed and ready at once for the 

 battle of life ; in the latter the chick rests for weeks, 

 a mere callow nestling, on the ledge of the rocks. 

 Yet the guillemot's egg is many times larger than 

 that of the pheasant. 



A curious departure from type is sometimes 

 shown in certain eggs. The eggs of the guillemot, 

 tree-pipit and the cuckoo, for example, are re- 

 markable for their wide range of colouring, the 

 difference in given specimens being often so ex- 

 treme that they might well be taken to represent 

 different species. The tendency to redness in eggs 



41 



