Feeding and Protection of Young Birds, i i i 



fearsome thing to be seized from below and dragged 

 under water and drowned between the jaws of a 

 tish : but even this long list of enemies does not 

 include all the dangers which beset the life of a 

 duckling. I have known a whole family of water 

 fowl perish bv becoming entangled in the weeds 

 growing at the bottom of a shallow lake, into 

 which they dived to escape an overhead enemy. 



Some species, such as the AVoodcock, carry their 

 young about from place to place when danger 

 threatens or food grows scarce at a particular spot. 

 They manage it in ditterent ways, according to the 

 testimony of numerous observers, some in their 

 claws, others between their thighs, and so forth. I 

 have only had the good luck to see it done once, 

 in the Island of Mull, when the parent bird ap- 

 peared to have her chick pressed between her legs 

 and held I'V the claws and toes of both feet. 



Wild iMicJcs, when nesting on the tops of ricks 

 in old ('rows' nests built in high trees, and similar 

 elevated situations, have been seen throwing 

 their young ones down to the ground below, and 

 also carrying them in their bills ; and I have no 

 doubt that the greater or lesser height of the 

 nesting-place has much to do with the method of 

 conve3'ance to what the little boy described as 

 terrible firmer. 



Whilst visiting a great colony of Aretic Terns 

 in the Fame Islands, upon one occasion I was sur- 

 prised to see a member of the species lift up and 



