INTRODUCTION 



THE passion for the possession of articles of interest 

 is one which is most widely diffused amongst all 

 races of mankind, from the untutored savage who collects 

 beads and coloured rags, to the most civilised connoisseur of 

 the highest works of art. In many cases the objects of 

 these collections possess little or no value beyond their 

 rarity ; they often have neither beauty nor utility to recom- 

 mend them. The giver of a score or more pounds for an 

 old postage stamp, which merely enables him to state that 

 he has an example that is not in the possession of any other 

 collector, is perhaps an extreme case. The collection of 

 nests, and more particularly of eggs, was formerly to be 

 regarded as of very much the same nature, but now egg- 

 collecting is no longer merely a schoolboy's pastime, and 

 Oology has been elevated to the rank of an intellectual 

 science. It is, if rightly followed, an important branch of 

 natural history, and we are now able to state that the 

 colours of eggs and the forms of nests, like that of the birds 

 that lay the one and build the other, have a fixed and 

 definite object, namely, concealment and the protection of 

 the species. The eggs of birds have to be preserved from 



their enemies, such as mammals, reptiles, and other birds that 

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