130 HABITS OF BIRDS. 



The eggs which border on a red diminish in tint in 

 proportion as they are laid ; so that some of the last 

 is merely a light reddish or whitish, pricked out with 

 clear red. The owls and howlets have white or 

 whitish eggs, without spots. Among the speckled 

 magpies, the eggs, on a white ground, have at the 

 broad end a circle of red, brown, and bluish spots, 

 over which the same colours are sprinkled. 



Egg of Magpie. 



" Birds which nestle in the hollows of trees, of 

 walls, or rocks, have, in general, eggs of a pure white. 

 Such are those of the hoopoe, the pici with black 

 plumage, the torcal, the martin [king] fisher, the bee- 

 eater. The woodpecker's eggs have a few red points. 

 Birds which nestle to a certain height in trees, as 

 ravens, crows, pies, &c., have usually green or green- 

 ish eggs, spotted or picked with brown. It has been 

 remarked that the white or whitish eggs in swimming- 

 birds are short and rounded, while the yellow or 

 greenish and spotted eggs are very much elongated. 

 The eggs of the grallae [waders] have spots on a 

 grey, yellow, yellowish, green, greenish, bluish, red, 

 or reddish ground. They are rarely spheroid, being 

 mostly elongated, and diminishing very rapidly from 

 the large end. White is the commonest colour of the 

 eggs of the gallinacea ; some, however, have a green, 



