Birds' Eggs 



or, to be more correct, rears but one chick, for, with a per- 

 sistence that is worthy of emulation, the female guillemot 

 will lay egg after egg as each one meets with mishap, till 

 in the end she accomplishes her object of bringing another 

 guillemot into the world. The eggs are remarkably vari- 

 able ; white, cream, sea-green, pale blue, red-brown, dark 

 blue and yellowish-green ground colours predominate, and 

 they are marked with dots, blotches, streaks and zones 

 of colour, which may be black, brown, green, yellow or 

 pink. In short, there is, between limits, hardly any 

 colouring or pattern that may not be found in the 

 guillemot's egg. The birds that lay dark green eggs in 

 their first season will always lay dark green eggs all their 

 lives ; other birds will always lay blue eggs, and so on. 



Surely these brightly coloured, bizarre eggs must be 

 very conspicuous, someone will say. They are conspicuous, 

 but that does not matter very much, for the guillemot lays 

 its eggs on narrow ledges of rock jutting from wellnigh 

 inaccessible cliffs. Were the bird to nest upon the 

 ground its striking eggs would bring about its extermina- 

 tion in a very short time, for it has not the advantages of 

 the woodcock, which lays conspicuous eggs. 



Now the woodcock is a bird whose plumage matches its 

 habitual surroundings about as closely as it is possible for 

 two dissimilar objects to match, yet the bird lays an egg* 

 that could hardly be overlooked. Apparently the bird is 

 conscious of its failing, for few sit more closely, in fact it is 

 almost possible to step on a sitting woodcock before she 

 leaves her nest. And the reason for her close-sitting 

 habit is that her drab plumage may conceal her all too 

 conspicuous eggs. 



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