NIDIFICATION AND INCUBATION 351 



to have my incredulity removed by seeing something 

 of the modus operandi myself on a future occasion. 

 This is what Gesner has about it in his " Natural 

 History " : — ^" Ego nuper ex erudito homine Scoto* accepi, 

 hos anseres Solendgens dictos, longiores domesticis esse, 

 sed minus latos ; in rupibus oua parere : & superposito 

 pede altero (unde nomen fortassis a solea, id est 

 planta pedis, quam & Germani sic nominant) tandem 

 excludere."f At first sight such a strange method seems 

 very contrary to the usual procedure of birds engaged in 

 incubation, but in reality it is not a whit more peculiar 

 than the methods which many other birds are known to 

 adopt. The Grebe covers its egg with reeds ; the Ostrich 

 often leaves it to the sun ; the Egyptian Plover buries it in 

 the sand J ; the Megapode and Brush-Turkey of Australia heap 

 great mounds over it, composed of vegetable matter, leaving 

 the heat generated by fermentation to do the rest. The 

 Emperor Penguin {Aptenodytes forsteri) places its foot not 

 upon its egg but beneath it in order to keep it off the ice, 

 as, for a different reason, does the Guillemot {Uria troile).^ 



* Henry St. Clare. 



t " Historia Animalium " (1555), III., p. 158. 



I Pluvianus melanocephalus. See Seebohm's " Charadriida3," p. 250. 



§ Mr. T. H. Nelson writes : "I have several times observed the parent 

 pulling the egg on to her feet and tucking it into place with her bill " 

 (" Birds of Yorkshire," II., p. 721). See also Selous' " Bird Watching," 

 p. 194. 



