CHAPTER XVI 
THE EGGS OF BIRDS 
fIERHAPS the most fascinating phase of Nature 
is the way in which she cares for her chil- 
eS; dren during the early part of their lives. The 
story oe seeds and eggs has not been half told. Think 
of the tiny thistle-fluff which soars away, borne on the 
lightest breath of air; of the great cocoanuts in their 
husks, so hard that they will turn the edge of a knife; 
of the burrs which ever patiently reach out for some 
passing creature to carry them to a distant home; of the 
cones of the forest, whose seeds may be transported by 
birds, or dropped to the ground only to smother in the 
shadow of the parent tree. 
In that “mother of life” the sea, the wonder of 
the first beginnings holds us spellbound. We see the 
tiny hydroids, those animal plants, flowering and budding 
on their waving stalks, and presently setting free their 
“seeds ”’—jelly-fish,—throbbing with life, drifting away 
on the ocean currents. Again observe these jellies scatter- 
ing behind them an untold host of eggs, as a rocket marks 
its path with a myriad sparks. Think of the salmon 
seeking her spawning-grounds in the uppermost reaches 
of rivers, or the cod boldly plaving for her offspring the 
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