Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Birds' Nests and Eggs: With Directions for Bird-Stuffing, With Instructions as to Their Management
With returning spring all nature revives; the birds which remain with us all the winter seem restored to life by the first fine day; those which departed on their journey to a warmer climate in the autumn return from their migration; and once more the woods and fields re-echo with their song. The rook and the crow give the first intimation that the pairing season is at hand. Their cawing is incessant, as is also the industry with which twigs and branches are conveyed to their intended dwelling-place in the tree-tops.
A little later, and the smaller birds make the grove sound musical, as their several songs of love are poured forth. From this time the male becomes the slave of the female. He sings to charm her; he labours incessantly to aid her; he gathers materials for the nest; he assists her in building, and super intends the workmanship; and marvellous it is to see them, without other instruments than beak and claws, build and weave or sew the nest, according to their peculiar habits. Observe the materials which they employ with so much effect, and with a discernment which indicates something approaching to intelligence. Look how skilfully one weaves the catkins of the willow, the poplar, and thistle down, surrounding it by stronger fibres, and the address with which it 18 suspended at the extremity of some slender pendulous branch, beyond the reach of anything that only runs or creeps. Another, having made its calcula tions, fixes its nest so near to the surface of the water, that as the wind sweeps through the four reeds to which it is so firmly and yet so delicately attached, its bottom just touches the water without being immersed, even in the most violent storm.
The eggs of birds vary again according to the species; not only in respect to their colour, but in their form also. They are white, blue, grey, green, red, or ash-coloured; and, besides the general predominant colour, they are covered with spots, dashes, or streaks of darker shades, which are regularly or irregularly grouped, sometimes towards one end, sometimes the other. Dr. Carus attempts to explain this diversity of colour the blood in the ovary, mixing with the calcareous salts of which the shell is composed. It results not only from an excretion of the calcareous salt, he says, speaking of the shell; for the blood of the oviduct, being 111 a sort of in?amma tory state, mixes itself with these salts, forming certain pro ducts. To which may be attributed the divers colours of the eggs of birds. All these varied tints are the result of the decomposi tion of the blood. It is possible that the colour of eggs may be due to some such cause, but the subject is open to doubt; for if the source of the colour and spots is in the blood mixing in the uterine vessels with the salts of the shell, it is difficult to conceive why all eggs are not spotted, and why those that are spotted vary in tint. Besides, the colour, whatever it may be, is only external, forming a thin coating only; whereas, if it had been produced by a mixture of decomposed blood and the component parts of the shell, the whole shell would partake of the prevailing colour. In the meanwhile, the question is still one of doubt; a doubt, perhaps, which chemical analysis would easily solve were the question one of any moment.
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