File:Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds (1898) (14753373774).jpg

Identifier: birdlifeguid00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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le site in whichthis thoroughly up-to-date bird will not place its nest ?It has taken possession of even the hollow spaces aboutcertain kinds of electric lamps, and has been observedrepairing its nest at night by their light! The Eggs.—Usually, little time is lost between thecompletion of the nest and the laying of the eggs. Thenumber of eggs composing what oologists term a fullset or clutch ranges from one to as many as twenty. Atthe time of laying, the ovary contains a large number ofpartly formed eggs, of which, normally, only the requirednumber will become fully developed. But if the nest berobbed, the stolen egg will frequently be replaced. Thelong-continued laying of our domestic fowls is an instanceof this unnatural stimulation of the ovary. Doubtless themost remarkable recorded case of egg-laying by a wildbird is that of a High-hole or Flicker, who, on being regu-larly robbed, laid seventy-one eggs in seventy-three days! The eggshell is composed largely of carbonate of lime,
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Plate XXIII. Page 114. BELTED KINGFISHEK. Length, 13 -00 inches. Male, upper parts bluish gray; under parts white,a bluish-gray breast-band and sides. Female, similar, but breast andsides with reddish brown. BIRDS EGGS. 69 which is deposited in layers. The final layer varies greatlyin appearance, and may be a rough, chalky deposit, as inCormorants and others, or thin and highly polished, as inWoodpeckers. The colors of eggs are due to pigments, resemblingbile pigments, deposited by ducts while the egg is in theoviduct. One or more of the layers of shell may be pig-mented, and variations in the tints of the same pigmentmay be caused by an added layer of carbonate of lime,producing the so-called clouded or shell markings. While the eggs of the same species more or lessclosely resemble one another, there is often so great arange of variation in color that, unless seen with the

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