234 SKETCHES OF BIRD LIFE. 



bird lifts up one of her young, flies off with it fifty 

 or sixty yards, drops it quietly, and flies silently on. 

 The little bird immediately runs a few yards, and 

 then squats flat on the ground amongst the dead 

 leaves, or whatever the ground is covered with. 

 The parent soon returns to the rest of her brood, 

 and if the danger still threatens her, she lifts up and 

 carries away another young bird in the same man- 

 ner. I saw this take place on the i8th May; the 

 young were then larger than, or fully as large as, a 

 Snipe." 



Here it will be observed that the narrator doubts 

 the feasibility of any other mode of transport than 

 that which he himself witnessed. 



Thompson, in his Natural History of Ireland 

 ("Birds," vol. ii. p. 253), refers to a keeper who be- 

 lieved that he had seen the old hen carrying off her 

 young when suddenly disturbed. Under the im- 

 pression of his having been deceived in the matter, 

 he several times followed hens apparently thus 

 burthened to where they alighted, and saw them 

 run off without any young bird being there. It is, 

 he says, the body behind the wings, the tail, legs, 

 and feathers of the belly, that she droops down in a 



