Abstract
SOME years ago an idea similar to that of your correspondent, Mr. Grensted (November 21, p. 53), occurred to me, as regards the protective coloration of eggs; and, curiously enough, the red-backed shrike was one of the birds whose eggs I selected for special observation. My experience has been that the ground colour of these eggs is quite arbitrary. I fear that I cannot furnish data, as I ought; but I well remember that I found in Sussex a rather abnormally pale clutch of eggs in a very dark nest; and that I regarded this, at the time, as completely doing away with my hypothesis. The evidence that I got from other, less striking instances, told about equally for and against.
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TITCHENER, E. Protective Coloration of Eggs. Nature 41, 129–130 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/041129a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/041129a0
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