OCTOBER. 



485 



are the means which nature has furnished them, whereby 

 they may render themselves agreeable to the objects of their 

 affection. 



It is easy to explain, therefore, on the principle of compen- 

 sation, were there no other explanation to be found, why the 

 handsome birds, in general, are endowed with inferior music- 

 al powers. They are able to accomplish by their personal 

 charms, what the plainer species are obliged to accomplish 

 by their music and eloquence. Hence, it may be observed 

 that the handsome birds, when engaged in courtship, place 

 themselves in attitudes which are calculated to display the 

 full beauty of their plumage ; while the warblers under the 

 same circumstances, pour forth an unusual strain of melody. 

 It may not be a mere suggestion of the fancy, that a male 

 goldfinch, who should not suffer his usual metamorphosis in 

 the spring, and should appear in the society of his golden- 

 breasted kindred, arrayed in the plain olive-garb of winter, 

 would be obliged to live without a partner to cheer his soli- 

 tude. How would he be despised by the females of his 

 tribe, while clad in the vulgar plumage of a plebeian sparrow ! 



I have thus far spoken of the brilliant and variegated plum- 

 age of birds, as constituting not only a means of protection 

 from their enemies, but as a bond of recognition and attach- 

 ment between individuals of the same species. Nature has 

 likewise, in a similar way, provided for the preservation of 

 the offspring. She has painted the eggs of no two species 

 exactly alike. Some she has adorned with a lively green, 

 others with a pale azure ; but, on account of the limited 

 number of distinct shades which would harmonize with sur- 

 rounding objects, and render them less conspicuous, she has 

 ornamented the eggs of the majority of the feathered tribe 

 with a speckled surface, combining the different hues in such 

 a manner as to produce an endless variety in their appearance. 



Almost all birds that build their nests upon the ground, 

 lay eggs thickly covered with brown or purple specks on a 

 ground-work of pale salmon or dove color, that they may the 

 more easily eiscape the eyes of such creatures as are disposed 

 to plunder them. The eggs of birds that build in trees are 



