86 EEMOYA.L OF EGGS. 



that they have been meddled with, and both 

 parents remove them to some other part of the 

 woods, where chance only could enable you to 

 find them again. In the same manner they also 

 remove the young when very small." The eggs, 

 as Audubon ascertained by patient watching, 

 are carried off in the mouth. The same obser- 

 vations apply to our British Goatsucker ; and it 

 is not improbable that other species of birds 

 may act in a similar manner. See also Wilson's 

 account of Caprimulgus vociferus. Let us here 

 be not misunderstood; we do not mean to affirm 

 that every species of Humming-bird will, when 

 the nest is disturbed, remove its eggs or its 

 young ; but that this is occasionally done by the 

 POLYTMUS, is, we think, sufficiently attested. 

 It is said that the "White -crowned Pigeon of 

 Jamaica (Columba leucocephala) will, if twice 

 driven by intrusion from her nest, remove the 

 young, leaving the nest empty, to the disap- 

 pointment of the self-congratulating spoiler. 



All birds with wings formed for rapid darting 

 flight, and perhaps especially those whose plu- 

 mage is burnished or lustrous, dart, as soon as 

 fully fledged, from their " procreant cradle," and 

 wing their way with as much skill and adroit- 

 ness as their parents. By way of familiar ex- 

 amples, we may adduce the Swift, the Swallow, 

 and the Kingfisher. Captain Lyon, as we have 

 seen, states that the young Humming-birds, 

 whose progress he watched, darted at once from 



