A FORCED PARTNERSHIP. 



A pair of Robins had made their 

 nest on the horizontal branch of an 

 evergreen tree which stood near a 

 dwelling house, and the four young 

 had hatched when a pair of English 

 Sparrows selected the same branch for 

 their nest. When the Robins refused 

 to vacate their nest, the Sparrows pro- 

 ceeded to build theirs upon the outside 



of the Robin's nest. To this the 

 Robins made no objection, so both 

 families lived and thrived together on 

 the same branch, with nests touching. 

 The young of both species developed 

 normally, and in due time left their 

 nests. The branch bearing both nests 

 is now preserved in the college 

 museum. — Oberlin College Bulletin. 



WHAT IS AN EGG? 



How many people crack an egg, 

 swallow the meat, and give it no 

 further thought. Yet, to a reflective 

 mind the ^'g% constitutes, it has been 

 said, the greatest wonder of nature. 

 The highest problems of organic 

 development, and even of the succes- 

 sion of animals on the earth, are 

 embraced here. "Every animal springs 

 from an ^%%r is a dictum of Harvey 

 that has become an axiom. 



In an ^^^ one would suppose the 

 yolk to be the animal. This is not so. 



It is merely food — the animal is the 

 little whitish circle seen on the mem- 

 brane enveloping the yolk. 



We hope to group a number of ^^^^^ 

 to enable our readers to compare their 

 size and shape, from that of the 

 Epyornis, six times the size of an 

 Ostrich &%^^ down to the tiny ^g^ that 

 is found in the soft nest of the Hum- 

 ming-bird. This gigantic egg is a foot 

 long and nine inches across, and would 

 hold as much as fifty thousand Hum- 

 ming-bird's eggs. 



60 



