236 JUNGLE FOLK 



The eggs, which may be looked for at any time 

 between May and September, are very beautiful. To 

 describe them in a few words is not easy, because they 

 exhibit great diversity in colour and markings. This 

 is one of the hundreds of facts inconsistent with the 

 orthodox theories of the significance of colour in 

 organic nature that confront the field naturalist at 

 every turn. The existence of such facts does not 

 perturb in the least those theorists who " rule the 

 roost " in the scientific world. Their attitude is 

 " our word is law — if facts don't fit in with it, so much 

 the worse for facts." As Hume points out, three main 

 types of eggs occur, and there are many combinations 

 of these types. Of the two types most often seen, 

 *' one has a pinkish-white ground, thickly and finely 

 mottled and streaked over the whole surface with more 

 or less bright and deep brick-dust red, so that the 

 ground colour only faintly shows through here and 

 there as a sort of pale mottling ; in the other type the 

 ground colour is pinkish white somewhat sparingly, 

 but boldly, blotched with irregular patches and eccen- 

 tric hieroglyphic-like streaks, often bunting-like in their 

 character, of bright blood or brick-dust red." 



