34 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



{Hirtindo domestica), whose nest has a very small 

 opening: while owls and hawks, wliich scarcely quit 

 their nests in the day, and pigeons, which only lay one 

 or two eggs and sit immediately after, have also white 

 eggs. The bright-blue, or bright-green egg, again, 

 belongs to birds which build in holes, as the starling 

 (Slurnus vulgaris), or which construct their nests of 

 green moss, or place themjn the midst of grass, but 

 always well covered. Almost all singing birds, he al- 

 leges, lay eggs of a dull or dark ground, and various- 

 ly speckled; and they for the most part build open 

 nests with materials similar in colour to the eggs, so" 

 that no evident contrast is presented which might lead 

 to their discovery and destruction. We may add from 

 Darwin the examples of the hedge-sparrow l^Jiccentor 

 modularis), whose eggs are greenish blue, as are 

 those of magpies and crows, which are seen from be- 

 neath in wicker nests, between the eye and the blue 

 of the firmament.* 



As this theory is but indirectly connected with our 

 subject, we cannot here spare room to examine it ; 

 but we may remark, that it appears to us much more 

 beautiful and ingenious than true: for we could enu- 

 merate more instances in which the principle fails 

 than holds good. Gloger's instances also are far 

 from accurate; for though the king-fisher, for example, 

 hides her shining white eggs in a hole, yet that will 

 not conceal them from the piercing eyes of their chief 

 enemy, the water rat, which, like all burrowing ani- 

 mals, can see with the least possible light. JMany 

 birds, also, which lay bright-coloured eggs, make 

 open nests; the thrush, for example, whose clear-blue 

 eggs, with a few black blotches, are far from being 

 concealed by the plastering of clay and cow-dung 

 upon which they are deposited. The green finch 



* See also St Pierre; Studies of Nature, ii, 393 ; Note. 



