1902-1903.] 99 



white eggs ; those of owls, though white, are wanting in polish ; 

 falcon's eggs are reddish-brown; those of rails are buff- 

 coloured and speckled; ducks and geese lay unspotted eggs; 

 those of cormorants and grebes have a white, chalky coating; 

 eggs of gulls are olive, with brown and grey spots; and those 

 of guillemots, which lay together in colonies without any nests, 

 are wonderfully varied, each bird having a colour pattern of 

 her own. That white eggs are hidden from the view of 

 enemies in holes or in covered nests is true in most cases — e.g., 

 the barn-owl, dipper, swift, kingfisher, rock-dove, sheld-duck, 

 and petrel. It is obvious that such conspicuous objects as 

 white eggs would readily attract their enemies if they were 

 not under cover. On the other hand, those eggs which are 

 placed on the open ground are protectively coloured so as to 

 resemble surrounding objects. Those of the nightjar, though 

 white, marbled with brown and grey, look at a little distance 

 like rough quartz pebbles; the eggs of the ringed plover and 

 little tern, laid among shingle, pebbles, and shells are so like 

 pebbles on the strand that one treads on them before they 

 are recognised ; and the same may be said of many others 

 which, laid on the ground like those of the oyster-catcher, are 

 quitted by the parent bird on the approach of an intruder, 

 while she uses all her arts to draw him away in pursuit of 

 her. She feigns to be lame or disabled, or she circuits on the 

 wing before him, vociferating loudly, like the redshank. Tha 

 state of the young when hatched differs to an extraordinary 

 extent, as it does in mammalia when they are born. The 

 young of the fox and rabbit in its burrow is at first blind and 

 helpless, while the calf or foal can follow its mother the day 

 it is born ; so the young of our song-birds, which have comfort- 

 able and often elaborate nests, are blind, naked, and helpless 

 when they are hatched, and can only open their mouths to 

 receive food from their parents' beaks. How different its the 

 condition of some of the ground-breeding birds ! On quitting 

 the egg it is covered with profuse down, protectively coloured ; 

 it can see, can run or swim, and can feed itself. A young 

 chicken or duck will illustrate this. Its mother never puts 



