Chirps and 
Chatter. 
( 57 ) THE BIRD WORLD. 
were of the commonest type—white 
grounded and thickly speckled and 
blotched with ruddy browns. It is, of 
course, by this time sufficiently proved 
that the Cuckoo’s egg rarely resembles 
with any remarkable closeness the eggs 
of the foster-mother, but this speckled 
pair against the three blue eggs of the 
Thrush gave a rare and surprising con¬ 
trast. One may perhaps connect the 
unusual selection with the weather. In 
this district a lamentable number of 
Hedge-Sparrows’ nests were found 
deserted, though some of them contained 
a full complement of eggs, after the cold 
weather. All over England Cuckoos 
are parasitic on the Hedge-Sparrow, but 
those that frequent special places have 
special predilections, and in this part 
of Hertfordshire they have more fre¬ 
quently than is usual preferred the 
Hedge-Sparrow. It is tolerably certain 
that the Cuckoo has an eye for colour, 
thought it has not the power, as the 
theories of some old naturalists almost 
implied, of controlling the colour of its 
own eggs. Is it not then possible that 
in the dearth of Hedge-Sparrows the 
Cuckoo felt an attraction towards the 
eggs that most closely lesemble that 
fascinating blue? 
Nest Protecting Devices. 
Many are the devices of birds for pro¬ 
tecting their nests; some, like the 
Plovers, have recourse to elaborate 
acting; others remain so rigidly im¬ 
movable as to escape detection. The 
nest of the Kingfisher, being an almost 
subterranean retreat, is more or less 
secure; but it is probable, in the case 
of the Chaffinch, that near to where it 
first makes its appearance upon the high 
road there is a compact nest of moss and 
lichen containing five pale greenish eggs 
spotted with red, upon which the hen 
is sitting, and that he is endeavouring 
to lead us further and further away. A 
Robin will sometimes fly out from a 
hedge-bank from whence comes the 
sound of twittering cries, and on seeing 
that she is observed will manoeuvre back 
to the neighbourhood of the nest, yet 
never re-enter it, until the watcher, tired 
of waiting, goes on his way. 
Relics of the Great Auk. 
There ought to be a steady rise in the 
value of eggs, skins, and skeletons of 
the Great Auk (Aha hnpennis) in this 
country, as the authorities of American 
and Continental museums are keen on 
obtaining specimens. Recently Mr. 
Rowland Ward has sold to foreign scien¬ 
tific institutions no fewer than nine eggs 
of this extinct bird, two mounted speci¬ 
mens, and two skeletons, the total value 
of which was over ^3,000. In the 
second decade of the last century, 
y arrell bought an egg for two francs; 
in 1854, when the bird was known to be 
extinct, the price of an egg rose to ^30 ; 
and in 1894 the egg for which Yarrell 
had given two francs brought the highest 
price on record—300 guineas. 
The Harrying of Lakeland Ravens. 
The few Ravens that continue to nest 
in Lakeland are exposed to continual 
persecution by well-to-do egg collectors. 
Recently a pair that had nested on a crag 
on Melbreak were robbed of five eggs. 
Two parties went to secure the nest. 
Both took 20-ft. ladders for the purpose, 
but finding them too short, agreed to 
join them together and divide the spoil. 
A spin of a coin decided the fate of the 
odd egg. The eggs of the Raven are 
protected in Cumberland, but it is a 
mere paper protection. The nests are 
regularly harried by collectors, and pro¬ 
bably in a short time the Lake district 
will know the noble bird no more. 
Feathered Barometers. 
When the marsh birds, and especially 
the Plovers, are restless at night, and 
their piping and wailing are heard long 
after the last gleam of daylight has 
faded from the sky, every native marsh- 
man knows that there will be rough 
weather during the next forty-eight hours. 
Contrasts in Birds’ Habits. 
The Nightjar, one of the latest of the 
summer birds to arrive, is now here, and 
as you hear its weird “ c'hurring ” note 
rising and falling on a summer evening 
in the bushy waste land it haunts, or, 
better still, if you have the luck to see 
