270 Twelve Months With 



of their incessant cries "kill-deer! kill-deer! kill- 

 deer!" as they fly about overhead, is more inspirit- 

 ing than the music of a fife corps. 



Their eggs, laid on the ground with little or no 

 nest, are of peculiar shape. They are pointed at 

 the smaller end, and very wide across the larger 

 end, giving them the appearance of a toy top. It 

 is said that eggs of this shape, which are peculiar 

 to ground-nesting and shore birds, are examples of 

 protective adaptation, and that they have gradually 

 taken on this top shape, as an advantageous confor- 

 mation to their environment, and therefore as a 

 means of protection. Eggs of this shape laid on 

 the sand or rocks will not roll off the scant nest 

 into the water, or be easily blown away by the 

 wind, but will roll and pivot about in a circle, 

 around the small end of the egg. 



Many similar examples of protective adaptation 

 are to be found in the eggs, plumage and physical 

 characteristics of birds. The eggs of woodpeckers 

 and owls laid in dark holes in trees are white, while 

 the eggs of ground nesting birds are almost without 

 exception so marked with protective coloring as to 

 make it difficult to see them in the grass or leaves. 

 Birds like whippoorwills, grouse, quail and wood- 

 cock, as well as their eggs and young are so marked 

 that it is next to impossible to distinguish them 

 from their natural surroundings. 



I once flushed a whippoorwill from her nest, and 

 looked for several seconds directly at her eggs laid 

 on the ground among some dead leaves and old 



