448 The Bird 
she leaves her eggs she backs carefully away, drawing 
over them, at the same time, a coverlet of beautiful down, 
the protective colouring of which is ample to shield the 
eggs. Ordinarily this coverlet is rolled up at the edge 
of the nest. It is to such a habit that the eider-down 
hunters owe their supply. A grouse does not pluck the 
down from her breast, but in devotion and ability to 
remain close upon her eggs she has few equals. It is 
rare indeed to find the nest of a grouse unguarded, and 
the mother bird will all but wait until your hand is upon 
her before leaving her eggs exposed. 
The many species of hummingbirds lay the whitest 
of eggs, but here it is the nest which is protected,—fash- 
ioned of dull-hued plant-down, with beams and rafters 
of cobweb, covered outside in our Eastern species with 
lichens exactly like those which are growing upon the 
limb to which the tiny air-castle is attached. The nests 
of vireos, also, are much like their surroundings. 
Herons and_ egrets, pelicans, cormorants, storks, 
swans and geese, all lay white or whitish eggs in open 
nests; but obviously these birds require little protection, all 
being able to defend themselves with beak or wing. Some 
of them nest, too, in large colonies, adding the advantage 
of numbers. The constant need of vigilance in protect- 
ing eggs thus exposed is at once evident when mankind 
—that disturber of Nature for whose intrusion she seems 
never prepared—comes upon the scene. If we make our 
way into the heart of a Florida rookery of herons, ibises, 
or cormorants, many of the birds will be frightened from 
their nests and the Fish Crows take instant advantage, 
