CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 129 



laying them towards the end of June ; they are easily founds and 

 their situation pointed out by the poor bird itself, in its anxiety to 

 defend them. It is impossible not to admire its unflinching bold- 

 ness of attack; soaring high above you, it will, on your approach- 

 ing its nest, suddenly pounce down at a short distance from you to 

 the level of your head, and flying directly at you, and with great 

 force, will strike you with its powerful beak, immediately rising to 

 repeat the attack, which is continued during your stay, and with 

 increasing rapidity as you near its nest. It is considered by the in- 

 habitants as the protector of their flocks, and with good reason, and 

 is by them protected in return. No Eagle would, with impunity, 

 approach the dwelling-place of a bird possessed of such courage and 

 intrepidity. When soaring high above you it much resembles an 

 Eagle in its flight, when standing near you on the ground you 

 would not suppose it to be the same bird ; it has then a thick, heavy 

 appearance, and a Duck-like waddle ; far different, again, when, 

 like the Arctic Feazer, it is in pursuit of other birds to plunder them 

 of their fish : I have seen it thus attack the Solan Gannet." 



We have next three figures of the egg of Richardson's Feazer, all 

 different, and unlike every member of a series with which we have 

 been comparing them. " Those figured," Mr. Hewitson tells us, 

 " are selected to shew the near approach which some of them make 

 to the eggs of other species []it may be added, of a widely different 

 genera], the middle figure resembling most closely that of tlie 

 Whimbrel Curlew ; the third figure shews a form which very rarely 

 occurs, and is so much like some of the eggs of the Mew Gull as 

 not to be known from them." There are some observations worthy 

 of attention on the plumage of this species, which may be con- 

 sidered in connection with the presumed distinctness of the Budytes 

 Jiava and neglecta, which oflTer not the slightest difference, except in 

 colour. Mr. H. observes that '' you are made aware of approaching 

 their breeding places, long before you reach them, by their loud, 

 harsh, and most singular cry, more nearly resembling that of a Cat 

 than of a bird : nothing can exceed their solicitation as you near their 

 eggs ; seating themselves at a short distance from you, they flutter 

 about and creep along the ground, extending their wings and express- 

 ing, with a language as intelliiiible as words, their extreme anxiety." 

 Yet are they " the merciless persecutors of the other species of sea- 

 fowl in their neighbourhood ; sucking their eggs whenever they are 

 .left uncovered by their owners, and with unavoidable speed pursu- 

 ing them over the surrounding sea, in order to compel them to dis- 

 gorge those fish which they had captured for themselves or for their 

 young ones. They are the Hawks among the feathered inhabitants 

 of the ocean, fearlessly attacking even the Greater Blackbacked 

 Gull, and evincing, in their amazingly rapid evolutions of flight, a 

 rapidity of wing which, I should imagine, surpasses that of any 

 other bird I know." 



On the following plate are two figures of the Manks Shearwater's 

 egg ; white, as are those of all the Petrel tribe, but one of them 



VOL. VI. NO. XIX. R 



