65 



to be found near the mouth of the Humber. When placed amongst 

 pebbles, the eggs of this bird are exceedingly difficult to find. Jackdaws, 

 Rooks, and Gulls would be very glad to make a meal off these eggs, and 

 considering the number of their enemies, it is remarkable that the Lesser 

 Tern is so common. The birds themselves are very conspicuous, and the 

 preservation of the race depends entirely on the colour of the eggs and of 

 the down of the yonng. The down is absolutely imitative of the 

 surroundings of the J'oung bird, and on that account its life is preserved. 

 The same observations apply to the other Terns. The breeding-gi-ounds 

 of some birds are so thickly covered with eggs that identification by the 

 birds themselves would be almost impossible if it were not for a variation 

 in the blotches on the shells. Animals and birds woi'k by what we please 

 to call instinct, because we do not know what else it is. Differences which 

 to us seem very small may be enormous differences to them. 



Mr. Hewetson then went on to speak of the habits of the Norfolk 

 Plover, a species unfortunately decreasing in number. This bird refuses 

 to be surrounded by a hedge. It must be on an open plain, where it can 

 watch everything that goes on around it. The nest of the Plover must be 

 approached from the leeward side. The bird has such acute sight and 

 hearing that if approached from the wind side the intruder will be 

 obi^erved. It is able to simulate its surroundings in a wonderful manner. 

 Generally it lays two or three eggs amongst ilint stones, and it is very 

 difficult for a person with the sharpest eyes to detect them. One has to 

 have a training after the manner of the " tracker," who is able to tell the 

 direction a traveller has gone in, and many other things about him, from 

 an inspection of the leaves of the bushes which have been passed, and the 

 marks on the ground. There are thousands of keen eyes on the look-out 

 for the eggs of the Norfolk Plover, for they are valuable as food for both 

 animals and birds. It is, therefore, a tussle between the animal prowling 

 for food and the bird desiring to perpetuate its species. The Common 

 Lapwing is so conspicuous a bird that it does not trust to its own colouring, 

 as many birds do, to protect the eggs when it is sitting on them. As soon 

 as it observes the enemy coming it flies away. It has a particular 

 antipathy to the Rook. The Rook is, Mr. Hewetson believes, the great 

 destroyer of game birds. It has a very sharp eye, and the other birds 

 whose eggs are preyed upon know that they have to be on the alert to 

 conceal them, else they would fail in the race for life. In the case of the 

 Brush Turkey, neitlier the male nor the female sit on the nest. This is 

 made of leaves, damp in the centre, and the eggs are hatched by a process 

 analogous to fermentation. If the Partridge does not sit very close, it is 

 difficult for it to protect its eggs. As soon as it leaves the nest the eggs 

 are perfectly evident. The Partridge's nest is very deep, and is made in 

 some grassy copse, so that there is a general tendency towai'ds concealment, 

 except when a person passes immediately over it. But there is nothing so 

 difficult to find as a Partridge's nest if the bird has only the sense to sit 

 still. It is difficult to conceive how instinct shows a bird in what way to 



