CHAPTER XI 

 BIRDS' EGGS 



WHEREVER and whenever birds and their nests are dis- 

 cussed it is fitting that something should be said about 

 their eggs, and for this reason : looked at in the proper 

 light, they teach us a great deal about the birds themselves. 

 All healthy-minded schoolboys, and many grown-up 

 boys, have collected birds' eggs, some from the mere 

 pleasure of plundering a creature weaker than themselves, 

 many because of a genuine love of nature and all that it 

 implies, and a few, thanks no doubt to the encouragement 

 of a school or local natural history society, with the object 

 of gaining a real knowledge of bird life. Of all these 

 collectors, how many, we wonder, look upon their prizes in 

 the light of bric-a-brac, or foreign stamps or cigar bands 

 or cigarette pictures or any of the other hundred and one 

 things that lend themselves to collection, and how many 

 try to learn something of the habits and nature of the 

 birds that laid their treasures. 



The association of the egg and its producer is more 

 intimate than might be expected. We all know a duck 

 when we see it, despite the fact that it may belong to a 

 species we have never seen before. Birds of prey, too, 

 cannot be mistaken for any other birds ; their hooked beaks 

 and well-developed talons give away their profession. The 

 snipe and its family also bear a striking resemblance to 

 one another, and the list might be extended ad nauseam. 



Justas thesebirds possess certain peculiarities of structure 

 which mark them out from all other birds, so do their 

 eggs, and the eggs of many other birds. A very slight 

 acquaintance with them will enable the student to say at 

 once that any particular egg was laid by a duck, a grebe, 



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