COoT. . 101 
ately begins pecking away right and left, which she continues 
to do until the enemy is so near that she is compelled to 
decamp for her own preservation. In this short time, how- 
ever, she almost always contrives to cover her eggs; and 
though the nest itself remains a very conspicuous object, a 
careless observer might pass it as deserted and empty.’ 
Quarrels arise among different birds sometimes at the spring 
of the year, for the choice of a situation. 
The eggs are from six or seven, to ten or even fourteen 
in number, of a light dull yellowish, or greenish pale brown, 
or stone-colour, spotted with small rust-coloured spots. If 
the first hatch be taken or destroyed, a second is produced, 
but in less numbers. 
The young almost immediately leave the nest to run about, 
and after a few days entirely forsake it, unless the weather 
is unseasonable, in which case they return to it at night 
for a week or two, the old birds carefully tending them as 
long as necessary. The hen covers them with her wings. 
The plumage is well adapted to resist water. Male; 
weight, from a pound and a half to two pounds; length, 
one foot three or four inches, or more—up to one foot six— 
different individuals varying in size; bill, dull white, with a 
tinge of red in the spring; over its base is a white unfeathered 
patch, which contrasts beautifully with the sable hne of the 
rest of the plumage. Iris, red; surrounding the lower part 
of the eye is a small semicircular streak of white; head on 
the back part of the crown, neck, and nape, deep black, 
with a tinge of ash-coloured grey; chin, throat, and breast, 
deep ash grey tinged with bluish. Back, black, with a tinge 
of ash-coloured grey, the shafts darkest. 
The wings have a white line on the bend; underneath they 
appear, in some lights, of a silvery grey colour; the shafts of 
the feathers are darker than the rest; greater and lesser wing 
coverts, black, with a tinge of ash grey; primaries, nearly 
black; secondaries, also black, tipped with white, making a 
narrow line across the wing. ‘The legs, which are placed 
very far backwards, but appearing still more so than they 
really are from the way they are bent, have an orange band 
above the knee; below it, they and the toes are greyish 
ash-colour, with an olive green tinge about the joints of 
the former, and the edge of the lobed webs of the latter; 
they are very long, and the claws sharply hooked. Old 
birds become blacker in colour. 
