THE CALIFORNIA MURRE. 931 
forward like a legless beggar, “snapping” momentarily. The strain of 
approaching danger begins to tell on the Murrine nerve; but when the last 
mother has fled, we have before us such a varied assortment of eggs that 
regret is lost in wonder. 
Murres’ eggs are the Majolica ware of every bird-egg collection. In 
ground color varying from pure white and delicate grays to beryl green or 
even sea green, they are speckled, splattered, blotched, and daubed with 
browns and blacks of a hundred shades. The more lightly marked specimens 
From a Photograph, Copyright, 1907, by W. L. Dawson. 
FIRING AT CLOSE RANGE. 
THE NORTHEAST MURRE COLONY, CARROLL ISLET. 
may have nothing by way of ornamentation beyond faint vermiculations of 
pale oil green and tawny olive, or else tiny irruptions of sordid lavender and 
Indian purple; but others may be scrawled like a Blackbird’s egg with purplish 
blacks, or buried, like a Hawk’s, in a smudge of chestnut rufous. 
It would appear highly probable that this variety is introduced by nature 
to facilitate recognition on the part of the birds, whose property might other- 
wise become hopelessly confused or lost. Certainly no two adjacent eggs are 
exactly alike, and the differences are usually so striking that a birdless ledge 
