INTRODUCTION. 
IX 
just the instances where such protection is most necessary, and 
where contrasting colours would lead to their detection ; such 
is the case amongst those birds which, making little or no nest, 
deposit their eggs, for the most part, upon the bare ground, or 
the shingle of the sea beach, and leave them uncovered on the 
least alarm. Of these are the Ring Dotterel, Oyster Catcher, 
the Sandpipers, Peewit, and the Terns, especially the Lesser. 
Amongst the other ground builders, the safety of the eggs 
consists in the careful and constant assiduity with which they 
are covered by the female; and more so in the adaptation of 
the bird’s feathers than its eggs, to the colour of the sur¬ 
rounding surface ; as the dull and very similar colouring of 
the females of nearly all the Duck tribe, of the hen Pheasant, 
and the Grey Hen (Tetrao Tetrix), — so strongly as they 
are contrasted too with the brighter colours of their mates, 
which do not assist in incubation,—will illustrate most ad¬ 
mirably. Were I to mention those birds, the eggs of which 
do not bear any resemblance to the surface on which they 
are deposited, I should have to enumerate much the greater 
portion of our British Birds. Who will say that there is 
any resemblance whatever in colour, between the clear blue 
eggs of the Thrush, and the mud-lined interior of its nest ? 
Neither do the bright blue eggs of the Hedge Sparrow bear 
much more resemblance to the nest. What likeness do the 
eggs of the Swans, the Geese, the Harriers, and the nume¬ 
rous species of Ducks (all white, or nearly so), bear to the 
ground upon which they are placed ? and why, if their 
colours only are intended for their concealment, are eggs 
so entirely different in that respect, placed in situations per¬ 
fectly alike ? 
It may be asked, for what purpose then are these beautiful 
colours lavished so abundantly? For the same purpose for 
which they adorn the plumes of the humming-bird, or the 
wing of the resplendent butterfly—to gladden our eyes, “To 
minister delight to man, to beautify the earth.” And thus it 
is that the eggs of nearly all those birds (the Owls, Kingfisher, 
Bee-eater, Boiler, Nuthatch, and the Woodpecker), which con- 
