6o REMOVING THEIR EGGS AND YOUNG 

 abdominal feathers supported by the legs of 

 the parent. 



Woodcocks are known to carry their chicks, 

 and the cuckoo, by means of its bill, lifts the 

 egg into someone else's nest. Therefore the 

 removal of their eggs by the pied flycatchers 

 is by no means an impossible feat. 



It might be argued that if a bird is aware of 

 a bad egg, she should (irrespective of markings) 

 be equally capable of knowing her own egg by 

 means of the same faculty, call it "inward 

 perception." I admit it would be quite pos- 

 sible if it were necessary. But, in my belief, 

 it is not necessary in nature's scheme that a 

 bird shall recognize her own egg. Nature's 

 only concern in the fertile, living egg is that 

 the contents shall be hatched out into the 

 world, and, so long as this is accomplished, it 

 is of no moment as to who actually broods 

 over it. 



The cuckoo's case shows this very clearly. 



Nature having no use for the bad egg, it 

 goes, so to speak, into the " melting-pot " ; 

 after disintegration the products are used over 

 again in building up fresh organisms. 



For the sake of convenience I have used the 

 expression, " a bird is aware of an addled egg." 

 Perhaps it would be more correct to say that, 

 so far as the bird, an unreasoning creature, is 



