376 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



dispense with any such preparation altogether '? It may 

 be that these nest-building- individuals are the descendants 

 of birds whose experiences of life have been somewhat 

 different to what may be called the normal. That is to 

 say, their ancestors may have lived under a somewhat 

 different environment, where the brooding of the eg'gs had 

 to be carried out on a cold damp soil. Such birds would 



Fig. 2. — Nest of Ringed Plover : composed of small pebbles. 

 (Photographed by C. W. Colthrup.) 



speedily discover the advantage of preparing- some sort of 

 a platform, not so much for the sake of the eggs, as for 

 greater comfort and warmth. This being so — and what 

 applies here applies also to all other species having similar 

 nesting habits — all those birds which did not rise to the 

 occasion would fail either to hatch their eggs or rear the 

 young, the offspring, either before or soon after hatching, 

 dying from chill, and thus, by a process of selection, only 



