How to Understand the Birds 



[45 



eggs, while tropical thrushes lay only two or three. If a nest is 

 robbed, the bird will often lay additional eggs to replace the 

 stolen ones. There is an historic case of a brown woodpecker 

 known as the flicker laying seventy-one eggs in seventy- three days! 



Fantastic as this may sound, it points up the fact that constant 

 nest-robbing has virtually turned domestic fowls into egg-laying 

 machines. A domestic hen may lay more than two hundred eggs 

 a season if they are promptly taken away, thus assuring "continu- 

 ous performance." On the other hand, if the eggs are left in the 

 nest to be incubated, her production will stop after fifteen or 

 twenty eggs. 



The best you can do, then, in giving actual numbers of eggs 

 that different birds have in a clutch, is to say that in a full set of 

 eggs there may be as many as twenty or as few as one. 



THE AMAZING HUMMINGBIRD 



The smallest of all birds, with the tiniest of eggs, the hummingbird has other 

 claims to fame. Aside from flying backward or remaining stationary in mid-air, 

 it can move its wings so rapidly that they become invisible. This incredibly 

 rapid motion produces the sound that gives the "hummer" its name. 



