110 BIRDS. 



a marked contrast with that of the guillemot. The egg 

 of the latter recalls yet another consideration, that the 

 pyriform shape of the eggs of certain seafowl minimises 

 the danger of their rolling off the narrow ledge on which 

 they are deposited, although a great many undoubtedly 

 get destroyed in this manner, some even finding their way 

 into the trawl. Mention of the colour of eggs reminds me 

 of the "light" egg found in most clutches of the tree- 

 sparrow and in some of the house-sparrow. This egg is 

 generally unfertile. I have given only general descrip- 

 tions of the various eggs, their average number, length, 

 and markings, relying for the commoner kinds on speci- 

 mens in my own collection, on standard text-books for the 

 rest. Not the least interesting aspect of the study of the 

 nests and eggs of birds is the discovery of new and strange 

 sites, some amusing examples of which were cited in a 

 recent article in the * Pall Mall Magazine,' including 

 sparrows nesting in a cannon -box (the cannon being 

 fired twice daily) and in a growing fungus; titmice 

 rearing their young in a lamp-post and a letter-box; 

 wrens nesting in an old bonnet that had been converted 

 into a scarecrow; and thrushes appropriating a garden- 

 roller. 



The identification of a living bird that crosses our vision 

 one moment and is gone the next is not always an easy 

 matter; and I fear that I have succeeded but 

 ion ' indifferently in my endeavour throughout the 

 descriptions which follow to give the character, whether 

 it be a patch on the wing-coverts, a line over the eye, 

 a crest or a collar, most likely to be arrested in a snap- 

 shot with the binoculars. No bird is difficult to identify in 

 the museum, where there is leisure to take account of the 

 exact number of feathers in the tail, the number of toes, 

 or the shape and nature of the nostrils. Identifying the 

 specimen is, however, a very different matter from recog- 

 nising the living bird ; and I have purposely omitted the 

 details given in every text-book in order to lay stress 

 on what to look for at the short notice usually available. 



