156 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



explanation, of the varying numbers of eggs, in the 

 study of the habits than of the size of birds. And 

 we can well understand that were the eagle as 

 numerously brooded as the tit-mouse, we should 

 soon be robbed of most of the music of our groves. 

 Interesting, however, as this inquiry is, it is re- 

 moved from our unpretending pages by the com- 

 plex nature of the speculations into which it would 

 lead us. 



We may learn from the tables above given an 

 equally interesting, and not less important series of 

 facts about the number of eggs laid by birds. This 

 number is constant for an individual species con- 

 stant, that is to say, within certain narrow limits. 

 Thus it was never known that an eagle deposited 

 six or seven eggs during one season ; and a na- 

 turalist, spying a nest of one of these birds high 

 out of reach, might confidently predict that if it 

 contained either eggs or young, there would only 

 be two, or at most three. Neither, again, do we 

 ever hear of a kitty-wren laying only one or two 

 eggs, and then incubating. The reader may not 

 have before reflected on this fact, yet it is one of 

 great interest to the natural theologian, to him, 

 that is to say, who loves, with Cowper, to trace the 



