Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 41550-h.htm or 41550-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41550/41550-h/41550-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41550/41550-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/nestseggsoffamil00adamiala Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). 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 a thing--"where there's a will there's a way." Many a boy that will take a deal of pains, and incur no inconsiderable risk of life and limb, to climb up a tree after a bird's nest, finds it too much trouble to read and learn about the habits of the creature he is thus ready to deprive of its warm comfortable home and beautiful eggs. He cannot tell you, if you ask him, of what the nest is composed, nor how, nor when it was built, much less can he answer the question which we have just put to our readers,-- WHAT IS AN EGG? "Well," we hear some one say, "an Egg is a thing of an oval shape, large or small, white or coloured and speckled, as the case may be; it has a shell which breaks if you knock it, because it is brittle; and inside is a yellow substance called the yolk, surrounded by a white, clear liquid; if you boil it for a little time it becomes _set_, so that you can take it up in a spoon, and in this state it is good to eat. Oh! very good, I like an egg, especially for breakfast, with a little salt; and then eggs, and other things with them, make custards, and pancakes, and puddings, and all sorts of nice things; and then I recollect some such funny '_Stanzas to an Egg by a Spoon_,' which begin, 'Pledge of a feathered pair's affection, Kidnapped in thy downy nest, Soon for my breakfast--sad reflection! Must thou in yon pot be drest.'"