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 Nightjar 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 as a rule. This bird has a great advantage over the other insectivorous birds, because it feeds largely on ants. It is structurally adapted for searching treetrunks, 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 anthills. When I cut one open for them they had a joyous quarter of an hour, and did great execution.
6. Doves and 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 peculiarly interesting birds. They build in a very dangerous situation—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.
