British Birds, their Nests and Eggs. 121 



of the golden-crested wren is smaller still. This, 

 the smallest British bird, is a mere fluff of 

 feathers, and weighs only eighty grains. The 

 relative sizes of the eggs named are as a garden- 

 pea to a cocoanut. Another interesting phase of 

 the subject is the number of eggs laid by different 

 species. The Solan goose, guillemot, cormorant, 

 shag, puffin, and others lay but one egg; whilst 

 some of the tiny tits have been known to produce 

 as many as twenty. In this respect the game- 

 birds and wild-fowl are also prolific, and a 

 partridge's nest containing from fifteen to twenty 

 eggs is not at all an uncommon occurrence. Where 

 a greater number of eggs than this is found, it is 

 probable that two females have laid in the same 

 nest. Certain species, again, habitually bred once, 

 twice, or thrice a season ; whilst others less 

 prolific have but a single egg, and lay but once 

 during the year. 



Almost as interesting as the eggs they contain 

 are the nests themselves. Birds of the plover 

 kind almost invariably deposit their eggs in a 

 mere depression in the ground ; while many of 

 the shore-haunting birds lay theirs in sand and 

 shingle often upon the bare stones. The 

 present writer once found a ringed dotterell's 

 nest on a bank of debris, the eggs being stuck 

 right on end, and absolutely resembling the drift 

 stuff. The lapwing's eggs invariably have their 

 smaller ends pointing inward. This bird is an 



