INTRODUCTION. xxxi 



What do we infer from these interesting facts ? What do they teach us ? 

 I think they show beyond the possibility of doubt the more or less close 

 relationship of one bird to another^ and prove the community of origin of 

 birds in each great natural group, in each family, and in many genera. 

 Again, I feel convinced that community of origin and inheritance will 

 account for, if it does not fully explain, much of the difficulty one meets 

 with in a scientific study of oology. 



Concluding Remarks. — We have thus seen that birds, aided by a 

 rigorous natural selection, strive to the utmost of their ability, in many 

 different ways, to insure the protection of their eggs and young from 

 danger until they reach maturity — 



" Each its well-chosen site selects where Nature 

 To its best concealment aids and favours it.'' 



Enemies numerous and deadly continually surround them — the prying 

 Magpies and Jays, the subtle snakes and lizards, the active field-mice, rats, 

 and weasels are all passionately fond of eggs and search incessantly for 

 them. We have seen that all the wiles birds display during the period of 

 nidification, all or nearly all the beauty in their nests, all or nearly 

 all the beauty in the colouring of their eggs and in much of the old and 

 young birds' plumage (in the former through the subtle working of sexual 

 selection) are subservient to the conditions of reproduction, and may safely 

 be attributed to a one great Protective Cause. 



The instances adduced in this paper in. support of the laws of Inheritance 

 and Bird-nidifi.cation have chiefly been selected from the birds of our own 

 land. But were we to seek instances from other climea, where bird-life 

 under favourable conditions exists on a much wider and more comprehen- 

 sive basis, still more startling would our proofs become. As regards eggs, 

 perhaps, but little more could be said ; but as regards the plumage of 

 birds and their nests — say in the Tropics — instances almost innumerable 

 might be found showing how universal are those laws which govern the 

 nidification of birds. Sufficient, however, I think has been said to show 

 what an important part Colour plays in the nidification of birds, and that 

 this part of their economy is governed most closely by law. If I have 

 succeeded in showing, in this meagre paper, that Birds' Eggs and Nests 

 are not the unimportant objects they are so popularly believed to be, and 

 that a careful study of them, in conjunction with the birds themselves, 

 helps to elucidate some of the grandest questions affecting organic life, my 

 end has been amply attained. For no matter how unimportant an object 

 or a series of facts may seem, we must not despise them and pass them by. 

 Nature's system is one mass of intricate complexity, becoming more evi- 

 dent the more we study it ; and the only means of gaining an insight as to 

 how that system works is by dealing with each phenomenon, not separately, 



