Sea Swallows 
the lower grade of intelligence of birds that are 
so careless or apparently clumsy in their archi- 
tecture. As we shall see in a later chapter, 
perhaps this is so, and perhaps it isn’t. Among 
land birds, ornithologists place thrushes at the 
top of the list, in the scale of development ; 
yet their nests are very clumsy, compared with 
the workmanship of some of the inferior fami- 
lies of songsters, as well as of some that are 
below the range of any of the song birds, like 
phoebes and humming-birds. May be nests 
are something like handwriting; sometimes 
you think you can read character from it; and 
sometimes you find you can’t. 
At the time of my visit the eggs were being 
laid, but none were yet hatched. ‘The nests con- 
tained from one to four, with a little variation 
in size, but generally about an inch and a half 
long. Audubon says there are never more than 
three eggs in aset, but I found one nest, and 
only one, with four. The markings are brown 
and brownish-black splashes all over the surface, 
and the ground tint varies from dirty brown to 
almost lilac. Asaclass they are not as pretty as 
the majority of eggs; but possibly their dingy 
color conduces to their safety by blending with 
the dull surroundings. My friend on the island 
131 
