300 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS 



where the entire community will join in repel- 

 ling any attack made by predaceous bird or 

 beast upon their eggs. 



We now come to that division which in- 

 cludes the marked or spotted eggs, which, as a 

 similar rule, are generally deposited in open 

 nests or upon the bare ground with no auxiliary 

 protection whatever. In this group we begin 

 to realise the true significance of colour. The 

 colour of the egg, in a very large number of in- 

 stances, so closely resembles the ground on 

 which it rests that its discovery is only effected 

 by the most careful scrutiny. Every egg collec- 

 tor must have experienced the difficulty of find- 

 ing such eggs as those of the Lapwing, the Ringed 

 Plover, or the Lesser Tern, to quote but three 

 instances out of quite as many hundreds. The 

 one bird lays its eggs, often bare and nestless, 

 upon the rough fallows and waste ground of 

 the uplands, where their yellow ground colour 

 and brownish - black markings most effectually 

 hide them from detection. The others, Ringed 

 Plover and Lesser Tern, deposit their eggs on 

 the sea -shore, also providing no nest. The 

 former species, however, always selects a strip 

 of fine sand, where the minutely speckled eggs 

 closely resemble it ; whilst the latter bird as 



