72 RIVERBY 



will, a bird that has absolutely no architectural in- 

 stincts or gifts. Perhaps its wide, awkward mouth 

 and short beak are ill-adapted to carrying nest ma- 

 terials. It is awkward upon the ground and awk- 

 ward upon the tree, being unable to perch upon a 

 limb, except lengthwise of it. 



The song and game birds lay pointed eggs, but the 

 night birds lay round or elliptical eggs. 



The egg-collector sometimes stimulates a bird to 

 lay an unusual number of eggs. A youth, whose 

 truthfulness I do not doubt, told me he once induced 

 a high-hole to lay twenty-nine eggs by robbing her 

 of an egg each day. The eggs became smaller and 

 smaller, till the twenty-ninth one was only the size 

 of a chippie's egg. At this point the bird gave up 

 the contest. 



There is a last egg of summer as well as a first 

 egg of spring, but one cannot name either with much 

 confidence. Both the robin and the chippie some- 

 times rear a third brood in August; but the birds 

 that delay their nesting till midsummer are the gold- 

 finch and the cedar-bird, the former waiting for the 

 thistle to ripen its seeds, and the latter probably for 

 the appearance of certain insects which it takes on 

 the wing. Often the cedar-bird does not build till 

 August, and will line its nest with wool if it can 

 get it, even in this sultry month. The eggs are 

 marked and colored, as if a white egg were to be 

 spotted with brown, then colored a pale blue, then 

 again sharply dotted or blotched with blackish or 

 purplish spots. 



