Their Eggs and Nests. 59 



also, or they wonld waste their power on nothino-, in- 

 stead of impartino^ motion. And, of course, the 

 stronger they are, the stronger must what they are 

 fixed to be, and the larger also to admit of more and 

 more strength. Well, the muscles that move the 

 bird's wing are affixed at their other extremities to 

 the breast-bone and merry-thought, and hence the 

 size and strength of these bones in the Falcon-kind 

 with their vigorous, impetuous flight and sweep of 

 wing ; and the comparative insignificance and weak- 

 ness of the same parts in the slow-flying, noiseless- 

 winged Owlet. If our young friends are disposed to 

 add, in their collection of birds' eggs, the so-called 

 merry-thought of each separate bird to the eggs laid 

 by that bird, they will be helped to learn an interest- 

 ing and instructive lesson in elementary anatomy. 

 And such a collection may be, to a great extent, made 

 without much trouble, by almost every one who has 

 the ordinary facilities of a residence in the country at 

 his command. 



Having said so much to show how even the most 

 simple and obvious and familiar diff*erences in the 

 bone structure of birds suggests, or, if not, confirms 

 the principle of classification of birds, and therefore of 

 their eggs, let us now go on to notice our quaint 

 " feathered friends," the Owls, and especially our 

 more familiar acquaintance among them. There are 

 other things belonging fco the Owl family, which our 

 intelligent young friend just named would have just 

 as little trouble in picking out from a heap of similar 

 objects, as in the case of the bones. I mean the eggs. 

 The same character, however much they vary iu size 



