INTRODUCTION. XXxl 
What do we infer from these interesting facts? What do they teach us ? 
I think they show beyond the possibility of doubt the more or less close 
relationship of one bird to another, and prove the community of origin of 
birds in each great natural group, in each family, and in many genera, 
Again, I feel convinced that community of origin and inheritance will 
account for, if it does not fully explain, much of the difficulty one meets 
with in a scientific study of oology. 
Concluding Remarks.—We have thus seen that birds, aided by a 
rigorous natural selection, strive to the utmost of their ability, in many 
different ways, to insure the protection of their eggs and young from 
danger until they reach maturity— 
“ Hach its well-chosen site selects where Nature 
To its best concealment aids and favours it.” 
Enemies numerous and deadly continually surround them—the prying 
Magpies and Jays, the subtle snakes and lizards, the active field-mice, rats, 
aud weasels are all passionately fond of eggs and search incessantly for 
them. We have seen that all the wiles birds display during the period of 
nidification, all or nearly all the beauty in their nests, all or nearly 
all the beauty in the colouring of their eggs and in much of the old and 
young birds’ plumage (in the former through the subtle working of sexual 
selection) are subservient to the conditions of reproduction, and may safely 
be attributed to a one great Protective Cause. 
The instances adduced in this paper in support of the laws of Inheritance 
and Bird-nidification have chiefly been selected from the birds of our own 
land. But were we to seek instances from other climes, where bird-life 
under favourable conditions exists on a much wider and more comprehen- 
sive basis, stil] more startling would our proofs become. As regards eggs, 
perhaps, but little more could be said; but as regards the plumage of 
birds and their nests—say in the Tropics—instances almost innumerable 
might be found showing how universal are those laws which govern the 
nidification of birds. Sufficient, however, I think has been said to show 
what an important part Colour plays in the nidification of birds, and that 
this part of their economy is governed most closely by law. If I have 
succeeded in showing, in this meagre paper, that Birds’ Eggs and Nests 
are not the unimportant objects they are so popularly believed to be, and 
that.a careful study of them, in conjunction with the birds themselves, 
helps to elucidate some of the grandest questions affecting organic life, my 
end has been amply attained. For no matter how unimportant an object 
or a series of facts may seem, we must not despise them and pass them by. 
Nature’s system is one mass of intricate complexity, becoming more evi- 
dent the more we study it ; and the only means of gaining an insight as to 
how that system works is by dealing with each phenomenon, not separately, 
