OF VARIOUS ANIMALS. 65 



Fieldfares come to this island from Norway, in 

 winter, for the comforts of a milder climate, and the 

 berries in our hedges ; they associate in flocks, and, 

 like other birds who live in society, have a guardian 

 to watch over their safety. He is generally placed at 

 the extremity of a bush, rising on his wings ; and, if 

 alarmed, gives a peculiar and loud note of terror. 

 The lapwing, after warning her young to conceal 

 themselves, by a note intelligible to them, upon the 

 approach of men or dogs towards her nest, appears 

 more terrified than before, in order to deceive those 

 she fears. 



Partridges are still more artful : they pretend to 

 limp and scream before their pursuers, till they have 

 withdrawn them from their young. 



In other instances. Nature has furnished animals 

 with peculiar weapons of defence. The petrel, which 

 is a bird remarkable for fat, has the singular capacity 

 of squirting oil from its bill when it has no other 

 means of annoying its enemy. 



The voluntary power of electrifying an enemy, is 

 possessed by the gymnotus electricus in a surprising 

 degree, and is an irresistible defence against those 

 whom it attacks. It is a native of the river Surinam, 

 in South America, and is said to exceed twenty feet 

 in length. It can kill a man, when irritated. The 

 same faculty enables it to seize its prey, by first be- 



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