THE REAL BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 141 



like young reptiles. Also, if striping is so protective, 

 why are striped small animals, although not absolute 

 rarities, so infinitely in a minority compared to the 

 plain brown ones ? And why are the pestiferous 

 skunks and zorillas, armed with their fetid secre- 

 tions, striped like the young Emus and the Cereopis 

 goslings ? 



The fact is, we shall not know anything certain 

 about the meaning of colouring in relation to pro- 

 tection until our airmen have a chance to take to 

 animal observation, and give us the real bird's-eye 

 view, since some of the worst enemies of all small 

 life must be the birds of prey, which are common 

 in all countries where man has not killed them off 

 to protect his poultry. Beasts and reptiles, of 

 course, do their share; of destruction, but the 

 former mostly hunt by scent, and the latter depend 

 much on seeing their prey move, when no colour 

 is of any use. 



Although they present such great diversity in the 

 habits and care of their young, as opposed to 

 reptiles in which these are always active and inde- 

 pendent, birds, as every one knows, are as uniform 

 in their production of young as in their possession 

 of plumage, since they all lay eggs, and eggs with a 

 hard shell at that, unlike the parchment-coated eggs 

 of most reptiles. But they greatly differ from 

 reptiles in the great diversity of the colour of these 

 eggs, which is of course the reason for the great 

 popularity of birds'-egg-coUecting. 



Nevertheless, many groups have kept up the 



