CHAPTER II. 



NUMBER, SHAPE, SIZE, AND COLOUR OP EGGS. 



IT now becomes necessary for us to descend into 

 a few particulars relating to another, though not 

 less important part of Bird history. If the woods 

 are free to us, we may wander through them at 

 bird-nesting time, and take a look into the varied 

 structures which lie hid among the green shades, 

 buried in the covert. If we took down the par- 

 ticulars relating to the number and size of the 

 eggs of various species into whose nests we had 

 glanced during our excursion, we should find 

 much to interest and instruct us ere w T e reached 

 home again. How contrasted the eggs of the 

 wren, so small, so delicately white, with a sprink- 

 ling of red, pin-point spots, with those of the rook, 

 mottled over with blotches of dirty green on a 

 ground of lighter green ; and how different both of 

 these from the large and delicately green-tinted 

 egg of the heron, or the pale and subdued yellow 

 egg of the pheasant ! 



