59 o SHIELDRAKE, Class II. 



webs of the next are a fine green, and thofe of 

 the three fucceeding orange; the coverts of the tail 

 are white ; the tail itfelf of the fame color, and ex- 

 cept the two outmoft feathers tipt with black ; the 

 belly v/hite, divided lengthways by a black line • 

 the legs of a pale flefh color. 



Thefe birds inhabit the fea coafts, and breed in 

 rabbet holes. When a perfon attempts to take 

 their young, the old birds fhew great addrefs in 

 diverting his attention from the brood ; they will 

 fly along the ground as if wounded, till the for- 

 mer are got into a place of fecurity, and then return 

 and colled them together. From this inftin&ive 

 cunning, Turner, with good reafon, imagines them 

 to be the chenalopex *, or fox-goofe of the antients : 

 the natives of the Orknies to this day call them the 

 flygoofe, from an attribute of that quadruped. They 

 lay fifteen or fixteen eggs, white, and of a roundifh 

 lhape. In winter they colled: in great flocks, 

 Their flefh is very rank and bad. 



* Plinii, Lib. X. c, 22* 



le# 



