president’s address. 
31 
The nightjar might also be mentioned as another example. 
Many of the Anatidse, or ducks, also nest upon the ground and 
lay nearly white or cream-coloured eggs, which would be most 
conspicuous if exposed, but the old duck before leaving 
carefully covers up the eggs with down plucked from her 
own body. She also, as a further safeguard, skulks away 
some distance from the nest before taking wing. The eider 
ducks in the Fame Islands exemplify this habit to perfection, 
covering their eggs with the greatest care, to protect them 
from the gulls, who would very soon make short work of a 
nest of eggs if exposed to view. 
The Anatidae ought certainly to have developed markings 
to protect their eggs,—if what the evolutionists tell us is 
correct—that their ancestors formerly nested in holes where 
no protective markings were required. 
The majority of birds laying white eggs usually deposit 
them in holes amongst rocks, in trees, or in burrows in the 
earth, as the swift, rock dove, owl, woodpecker, wryneck, 
kingfisher, shearwater, and petrel; others that lay white 
eggs in exposed situations are notably the ring and turtle 
dove, whose eggs seem to court your notice, placed on a 
slight platform of twigs and roots, only an apology for a nest, 
so scanty, in fact, that you can often see the white eggs 
showing through. Now supposing that these species have 
descended from hole-breeding ancestors—the rock dove breeds 
in holes at the present time—how is it that they have not 
developed colour and markings as a means of protection ? 
I expect the answer will be that a sufficient time has not 
elapsed for them to have developed the means, but that they 
will do so. I have never yet heard of an instance where 
even slightly marked eggs have been found, which would 
show some tendency towards that result. The other cases 
where white eggs are exposed mostly occur either in those 
species which breed in colonies, and are able by their numbers 
to repel attacks from their natural enemies, or else in the 
Falconidae, like the Hanius, who lay generally white eggs 
exposed to view. I think in this case that the eggs are rarely 
left without one of the old birds, as it is well known that 
amongst this order, incubation commences directly the first 
egg is laid, and also that the male brings food to the nest for 
his mate, consequently she is not obliged to go far from 
home, and, I imagine, the natural enemies of such birds have 
little chance of destroying eggs so well guarded. I do not 
class man amongst the natural enemies of “Bird Life,” 
because when he steps in the balance of nature is sure to be 
upset, but with respect to such vicissitudes and dangers as 
