ORDEH ACCIPITRES. 137 



incubation ; if they then appear more numerous, it Is not that 

 they have actually increased in number, but that they have 

 become more sensible to the eye. This is very visible in the 

 green and red eggs, &c. These spots are commonly wider, 

 closer, and more numerous towards the large end of the egg, 

 where they form a sort of zone or crown. Among many birds, 

 however, they have one uniform colour, without any spot. 



The eggs of the diurnal birds of prey are of a whitish 

 colour, spotted with red, or red spotted with brown. The eggs 

 which border on a red, diminish in tint in proportion as they 

 are laid ; so that sometimes the last is merely a light-reddish, 

 or whitish, pricked out with clear red. 



The owls and howlers have white, or whitish eggs, 

 without spots. Among the speckled magpies, the eggs, on a 

 white ground, have, at the broad end, a circle of red, brown, 

 and bluish spots, over which the same colours are sprinkled. 

 Birds which nestle in the hollows of trees, of walls, or rocks, 

 have, in general, eggs of a pure white. Such are those of the 

 hoopoe, the pici with black plumage, the torcol, the martin- 

 fisher, the bee-eater. The woodpecker's eggs have a few red 

 points. 



Birds which nestle to a certain height in the trees, as ravens, 



crows, pies, &c., have usually green, or greenish eggs, spotted 



or picked with brown. 



It has been remarked, that the white or whitish eggs in the 



swimming birds are short and rounded, while the yellow or 



greenish and spotted eggs are very much elongated. 



The eggs of the grallce have spots on a gray, yellow, yellowish, 



green, greenish, bluish, red, or reddish ground. They are 



rarely spheroid, being mostly elongated, and diminishing very 



rapidly from the large end. 



White is the commonest colour of the eggs of the gallinacea ; 



some, however, have a green, greenish, or yellowish ground. 



It is remarkable that the eggs which certain species deposit on 



green herbs, partake more or less of this colour. 



