Ges 
392 Moustey, Subsequent Nestings. Oct. 
pear shaped, whilst the second are shorter and oblong, facts I had 
not noticed previous to the preparation of this paper. After taking 
the second set the birds were not seen again, nor was any other nest 
found in the locality, even when searching after all the leaves were 
off the trees. 
It only now remains to sum up the evidence and arrive at the 
answers to our questions, to do which I must ask my readers in 
the case of the first one, to assume for the moment that the second 
or third set of eggs (as the case may be) laid by the birds were the 
last ones for that season. This being so, the table gives us the 
following results, viz.: 
(1) That 70% of the birds laid one set of eggs only after iis 
loss of the first one, the balance or remaining 30% laying two. 
(2) That the average time occupied in building a new nest and 
laying another complete set of eggs is eleven days. 
(3) The evidence in this case all points to the fact of the second 
or third nest being in a similar situation to the first one, the average 
distance from it being sixty-six yards. 
(4) Here likewise the evidence is all in favor of the eggs in 
succeeding sets being of the same color, markings and shape as 
the first ones, but as regards size 57% only appear to be the same 
in this respect, the remaining 48% differing, and in the matter of 
numbers 70% of the sets contain the same as the first, whilst the 
balance or 30% differ, this difference apparently being about equal, 
half consisting of more, and half of less than the original set. 
Now if it were possible that the answer arrived at to our first 
question, “Might be the be-all and the end all; here,” then we’d 
jump, not the life to come as Macbeth says, but the suppositions 
to come, for suppose these second or third sets as the case may be, 
are not the final efforts of the birds at reproduction, what then? 
Why, so far as I can see no satisfactory answer will ever be forth- 
coming, for should the birds after leaving the site of their second or 
third ventures, betake themselves to a fresh locality say a quarter 
of a mile or more away, how could I or anyone else be able to locate 
them again, and even if it were possible to do so, and we could 
secure that set also, they might move off again, and so the thing 
would go on ad infinitum, except for the reason that we know in 
the case of wild birds they only lay at a particular season of the year, 
