. Birds and nature . ers her eggs and pro-ceeds to incubate, each day adding tothe wannth and beauty of her treasuresby plucking the dark down from herbreast and arranging it about the eggs,still taking the precaution of concealingthem before leaving the nest, which shedoes only to obtain a few morsels fromI he lake close by where no doubt hermate is anxiously awaiting. Shovellersare very close sitters, and it is not anuncommon occurrence to capture the par-ent bird on her nest. In order to obtain a perfect set freefrom nest stains, I took the nest andeggs here pictured, when nearly fresh,henc
. Birds and nature . ers her eggs and pro-ceeds to incubate, each day adding tothe wannth and beauty of her treasuresby plucking the dark down from herbreast and arranging it about the eggs,still taking the precaution of concealingthem before leaving the nest, which shedoes only to obtain a few morsels fromI he lake close by where no doubt hermate is anxiously awaiting. Shovellersare very close sitters, and it is not anuncommon occurrence to capture the par-ent bird on her nest. In order to obtain a perfect set freefrom nest stains, I took the nest andeggs here pictured, when nearly fresh,hence the scarcit\ of down in the would not have occurred had thebird been permitted to sit a week or two,before being disturbed. However, thiswould probably have destroyed, to a cer-tain extent, the natural tint in the eggs,which is a peculiar, dull grayish green,elliptical or nearly so in shape, with anaverage size of two and one-tenth inchesin length by one and one-half inches inwidth. Gerard Alan Abbott. 74. ! JADE. Jade is a term applied in general to atough, fibrous mineral of a greenish col-or having the composition of a pyroxeneor amphibole. Until recently the miner-al was supposed to form a single spe-cies, but it is now known that at leasttwo species are grouped under this of these is a form of pyroxene andis known as jadeite, the other is a formof amphibole, and is named the term is often used to includeany tough green stone having a hard-ness between 6 and 7 and taking a goodpolish, since such rock or mineralsare often carved by people who usetrue jade. Jadeite is a mineral of defi-nite composition, it being a silicate ofsoda and alumina. The percentagecomposition of pure jadeite is— per cent, alumina per centand soda per cent. Its hardnessis a little below that of quartz or be-tween and 7, but its extreme tough-ness makes it often seem harder thanthis. It is a rather heavy mineral, itsspecific gravity being
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