498 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
bodies were thin and emaciated, the breast-bone often protruding 
almost through the skin. By training a terrier to find the dead 
bodies, one gets some slight idea what an ordeal a hard winter is 
to our birds. Another point is that eight young Tits would 
hardly require more food than five greedy little Robins, and so 
the labours of the parents in the two species would not differ 
appreciably. 
3. SMALLER WaRBLERS (Chiffchaffs, Willow Warbler, &c.).— 
Here again it is no more difficult to feed eight small Warblers 
than five large ones. A Wood Wren usually lays six or seven 
eggs; she can rear her family as easily as a Redstart can rear 
five; and these species succumb in greater numbers during 
migration than their more stalwart relations. 
4. The Nicutsar lays but two eggs, probably because a 
huddled mass of half a dozen gaping youngsters could hardly fail 
to be distinguished, seeing that she incubates on the bare ground. 
5. The Wryneck lays nine eggs asa rule. This bird has a 
creat advantage over the other insectivorous birds, because it feeds 
largely on ants. It is structurally adapted for searching tree- 
trunks, and if it finds the supply on the trees run short it has 
only to preserve a few ant-hills to obtain an unbounded quantity. 
I observed one pair very carefully when feeding their young, and 
they seemed to rely almost wholly on some neighbouring ant- 
hills. When I cut one open for them they had a joyous quarter 
of an hour, and did great execution. 
6. Doves anp PigEons.—I have only the old hackneyed 
explanation for the unvarying pair of eggs laid by these birds, 
i.e. that they are conspicuous among birds for their tender 
affection to their mates, and that the eggs always hatch out male 
and female in the same nest. I have had no opportunities of 
verifying this theory among the wild kinds, but it is undoubtedly 
true in most instances of the domestic Pigeon. 
7. PLOVERS AND CERTAIN OTHER WADERS.—These are pecu- 
liarly interesting birds. They build in a very dangerous situa- 
tion—on the ground in tolerably open and exposed places. This 
occasions three difficulties; for, to balance these dangers and the 
probable resulting losses, 
(1). The number of young must be passably large. 
(2). ‘The young must be able to run when hatched. 
