2QO tV/LD SPOUTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



bark of the tree in which it is. So do also all the other small 

 birds. Again, they line their nests with materials of the same 

 colour as their eggs. The chaffinch lines it with wool and 

 feathers mixed togetner, giving it a background of nearly the 

 same hue as the shell of the eggs. The greenfinch lines it with 

 light-coloured feathers, collected from the poultry-yard, as her 

 eggs are nearly white. The yellow-hammer has a greyish egg 

 with stripy marks ; she lines her nest with horsehair. The 

 robin's eggs being of a reddish-brown, she makes use of dried 

 grass and similar substances. The prevailing colour of the 

 hedge-sparrow's nest is green, and her eggs are of a greenish- 

 blue ; and in the same manner all our common and unregarded 

 birds adapt both the outside and the lining of their nests to the 

 colour of the surrounding substances and that of their own eggs 

 respectively. In the same manner they all have bills adapted 

 to the food on which they live — the grain-feeding birds have 

 short, strong mandibles, while those of the insectivorous birds 

 are longer and more slender, and as perfectly adapted for search- 

 ing in crannies and corners for the insects and eggs that may 

 be hidden there, as the former are for cutting and shelling the 

 seeds and grain on which they feed. 



Look, too, at the eggs of lapwings and of all those birds 

 that hatch on the bare ground. Those that lay on fields have 

 their eggs of a brownish -green, while those that lay on the 

 stones and pebbles have them of a sandy and brown mottled 

 colour, so like the substances which surround them, that it is 

 most difficult for the passer-by to distinguish the egg from the 

 stone. In the same manner the young of all birds which live 

 on the ground resemble the ground itself in colour, thereby 

 eluding many of their enemies. Look also at the birds whose 

 residence and food are placed in the marshes and swamps — the 

 woodcocks and snipes, for example, which feed by thrusting their 

 bills into the soft mud for the purpose of picking out the minute 

 red worms and animalcules which abound in it, have the bill 

 peculiarly adapted for this purpose. The upper mandible has 

 a kind of knob at the end, which overlaps the under mandible, 

 and not only prevents its being injured, but makes it quite easy 

 for the bird to pass its bill both into and out of the ground 

 without obstruction. How peculiarly well the bill of these birds 

 is adapted for this purpose is perceived at once by drawing it 



