| A pair of Robins had made their nest on the horizontal branch of an evergreen tree which stood near a dwelling house, and the four young had hatched when a pair of English Sparrows selected the same branch for their nest. When the Robins refused to vacate their nest, the Sparrows proceeded to build theirs upon the outside of the Robin's nest. To this the Robins | made
no objection, so both families lived and thrived together
on the same branch, with nests touching. The young of
both species developed normally, and in due time left
their nests. The branch bearing both nests is now
preserved in the college museum. -- Oberlin College Bulletin. |
| How
many people crack an egg, swallow the meat, and give it
no further thought. Yet, to a reflective mind the egg
constitutes, it has been said, the greatest wonder of
nature. The highest problems of organic development, and
even of the succession of animals on the earth, are
embraced here. "Every animal springs from an
egg," is a dictum of Harvey that has become an
axiom. In an egg one would suppose the yolk to be the animal. This is not so. It is merely |
food
-- the animal is the little whitish circle seen on the
membrane enveloping the yolk. We hope to group a number of eggs, to enable our readers to compare their size and shape, from that of the Epyornis, six times the size of an Ostrich egg, down to the tiny egg that is found in the soft nest of the Humming-bird. This gigantic egg is a foot long and nine inches across, and would hold as much as fifty thousand Humming-bird's eggs. |