122 



THE OOLOGIST 



cock fly with one of her young tirmly 

 grasped between her legs. It is a com- 

 mon thing to find that a brood of young 

 Woodcock has been removed from a 

 locality over night. Other birds also 

 carry their young, and in various ways 

 The Wood Duck must transport her 

 downy nestlings to the water from the 

 hollow in the tree where they are 

 hatched, for the delicate creatures 

 could not drop from the height. Some 

 maintain that the young are carried 

 on the back, and others say that the 

 old birds grasps the nestling in her 

 beak. The only case of a birds' 

 carrying its young that I have met with, 

 was in the Great northern diver, which 

 I watched as she swam away with her 

 two young on her broad back. A friend 

 of mine whom I consider truthful, claims 

 that he has seen the old Loon flying 

 from one lake to another with her 

 young on her back; and this does not 

 seem unreasonable after 1 have seen 

 the bird transporting her brood in the 

 water. Capable writers who have 

 witnessed the act say that it is a com- 

 mon thing for Auks to hold on to their 

 single egg when frightened from the 

 clift' where setting, and to let the eggs 

 fall in the sea as they fly. The bird 

 evidently holds the egg between its legs 

 as it rests on the rocky perch, and in 

 being suddenly stai'tled from its posi- 

 tion holds to the egg, forgetting to re- 

 lease it, or perhaps attempts to carry 

 the egg as a matter of fancied security. 

 Observers have recorded the act of the 

 Oyster-catcher in carrying its eggs, 

 and in successively removing them to a 

 place of safety. 



But it remains for the wide mouthed 

 Goatsuckers to receive full credit for 

 the remarkable habit of carrying their 

 eggs in the mouth. No less an author- 

 ity than Audubon claims that the Whip- 

 poor-will at times carries its eggs in its 

 mouth. I have never witnessed the 

 act, nor have I met with anyone who 

 has seen the bird carry an egg in its 



cavernous moulh. Slill I believe that it 

 is done, and I fpel confident that the 

 Nighthawk and Whip poor-will are 

 both givtnto transporting their eggs 

 from one place to another The Goat- 

 suckers lay their i ggs on the ground or 

 leav^ s, and the eggs may be suitably 

 incubated in most any level field or 

 wood. If thtn, the biid wishes to re- 

 move its eggs to a place of safety, it is 

 reasonable to think that it will do so if 

 it has the ability. That it has the ca- 

 pacity there is no doubt, as anyone will 

 agree with me who will fit an egg of 

 the two species of birds into their 

 owner's mouths 



Although the eggs ff a species follow 

 a type, and eggs of a kind are generally 

 so nearly alike that an expert can 

 identify them as rule, there are fre- 

 quently cases of marked dift'erence, and 

 stranger still, there are not rarely in- 

 stances where one or two eggs in an 

 otherwise normal set are so peculiarly 

 shaped, so large or under sized, or 

 strangely marked, or not marked at all, 

 that the oddities in no way resemble 

 the others of the set. To simply enum- 

 erate a list of oddities would take too 

 much of our space, for much investiga- 

 tion has been devoted to this subject- 

 Certain it is that much that is credited 

 to an abnormal condition, especially as 

 regards peculiarities in coloration, is 

 nothing more than an idiosyncrasy of 

 the bird. This is markedly noticable 

 jn certain cases, where certain pairs of 

 birds have laid characteristic sets of 

 peculiarly colored eggs, and which 

 have been noted season after season. 

 So marked is the set of eggs laid by a 

 particular bird that collectors have 

 recorded the peculiarity for years. 

 For instance, many collectors make a 

 speciality of collecting and recording 

 the sets ol hawk's eggs, and I have 

 known of a collector telling just the 

 route that was traversed by another 

 "egg crank" by looking at the stts of 

 eggs taken on a day's trip. This knowl- 



