338 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



to ensure each receiving its due amount of atten- 

 tion on the part of the parents, who might overlook 

 one of them if placed beneath the others at the 

 bottom of the nest. In the position they now 

 occupy, the nestlings are conveniently placed for 

 being fed, and also for the removal of all excre- 

 mentitious matters. 



Among the smaller birds, generally, habits of 

 the most exemplary cleanliness are at this time 

 displayed. Not very unfrequently an egg remains 

 unhatched, or " addled ; " and this, if it continues 

 whole, may often be left in the nest with the nest- 

 lings. It has been said that birds have the power 

 of recognising such eggs, and that they always 

 remove them from the nest. Such, however, does 

 not actually appear to be the case, an addle egg 

 being, as we have just stated, occasionally met 

 with among the nestlings. But the pieces of the 

 egg-shell are removed ; and if this egg were by the 

 movements of the young bird to become broken, 

 its fragments would certainly be removed, and 

 scattered on the ground near the nest. This prac- 

 tice is very common among many small birds. 

 That it is universal, facts do not at present justify 

 us in concluding. 



