BIRDS, SECOND SERIES***


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NESTS AND EGGS OF FAMILIAR BRITISH BIRDS,

Described and Illustrated; With an Account of the Haunts and Habits
of the Feathered Architects, and Their Times and Modes of Building;

SECOND SERIES.

by

H. G. ADAMS.

Author of "Favorite Song Birds," "Beautiful Butterflies,"
"Humming Birds," &c., &c.

With Eight Coloured Plates of Eggs,
Containing Thirty-Eight Different Species.







London:
Groombridge and Sons, 5, Paternoster Row.
M DCCC LVII.




INTRODUCTION.

WHAT IS AN EGG?


It may at first strike our young readers that this is a question very
easily answered; if they think so, let them try what sort of an answer
they can give to it, and if they break down in the definition, we will
endeavour to help them, as we are told in the old fable, Jupiter did
the waggoner; but it is best for young people to _try_, and, for that
matter, old people too; let them never believe that they _can't_ do