THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 63 



suspended by the rim to two or more thin twigs, and generally 

 well hidden amongst the green leaves. Or, again, that of the 

 New-Holland (Meliornis Novae- Hollandiae), which is composed 

 of dry twigs, lined with the soft seeds of the banksia, and 

 placed in an upright fork within a few feet of the ground. 



I think it will not be out of place here (although I am not 

 dealing with eggs generally in this paper) to remark that all of 

 the honeyeaters, a family, as a rule, of very sombre colours, lay 

 eggs of a more or less pink tint, and the eggs of some species are 

 •of a most beautiful colour. This, I think, will be found to follow 

 ■a rule that seems to me to exist amongst birds, that those which 

 are most beautifully coloured do not lay correspondingly beautiful 

 eggs, but rather of a colourless nature ; whilst those birds which 

 possess no very gaudy colours very often lay most beautiful eggs. 

 Of the former class the whole parrot tribe may be given as an 

 example in this country. But I am inclined to think that these 

 came under another rule also, which is that birds which build in 

 hollows of trees, or burrow in the ground, or build nests of such 

 a shape as to allow but little light to enter, and nocturnal birds 

 lay white eggs Examples of this rule may be found in the king- 

 fishers ( Akedinidae), some of which build in hollow trees, whilst 

 others bore holes in the ground ; the pardalotes, whose habits are 

 similar ; the fairy martin, whose retort-shaped nest admits very 

 little light, and its congener, the tree swallow, which lays 

 in the hollows of trees ; or the very common instance of the 

 acanthiza {Geobasileiis chryssorrhous), whose domed nest does not 

 allow much light to enter. And many more examples might be 

 adduced. The obvious reason for this rule seems to me to be 

 that if colour existed in the above cases it would be of no benefit 

 to the species, as it could not be enjoyed by the bird in the 

 absence of light. Another curious fact in connection with this 

 subject is that the hxonzQ cxickoo {Chalcites J)lagosus), which. Izy^ 

 eggs of a bronze tint, mostly lays either in dome-shaped nests, 

 such as that of the acanthiza, or else in nests of birds which do 

 not lay very highly coloured eggs, such as the robin's; whilst 

 its congener, the narrow-billed bronze cuckoo (C. basalis), 

 which lays eggs of a white ground, spotted with red, very fre- 

 quently makes the ephthianura, a bird which lays similarly 

 highly-coloured eggs, the foster-parent of its young. This 

 choice of nests, containing similarly coloured eggs, is com- 

 mented on by Darwin in his "Descent of Man," concerning 

 the English species of the cuckoo family. 



Passing now to birds which use mud as the material for their 

 nests we have the familiar instances of two species of swallows 

 in this colony, the welcome swallow which builds its saucer 

 shaped nest under the shade of some verandah, bridge, or out- 

 building in preference to the caves and hollows of trees resorted 



