244 BIRD LIFE 



skinning was only dropped when the tension of the 

 muscles relaxed after death. It is not difficult to 

 conceiTe the advantage of such an arrangement to 

 a bird breeding upon ice. It is a curious coincid- 

 ence that the only approach to a pouched bird should 

 have been found in the hemisphere in which the Mar- 

 supial is a common type in mammals. 



The devices of a Partridge or Lapwing to lead away 

 from the nest are familiar enough to every one who has 

 lived in the country. But to see the perfection to 

 which such deceptive arts can be carried, one of the 

 breeding-places of the Little Arctic Skua in the Shet- 

 lands should be visited. The mother-bird can limp 

 like a Partridge or drop as if shot from the sky, and 

 lie on its side feebly flapping one wing; and not 

 content with this, deliberately, when hard pressed, 

 will lead on to the nest of a Common Gull, and then 

 go through an elaborate pantomime of distress. 



The Shetland shepherds say, and profess to believe, 

 that the young of the Little Ringed Plover, which 

 breeds in the islands in quantities, when they want 

 to escape notice, throw themselves on their backs 

 and hold a leaf, clasped between the legs, over their 

 stomachs. 



'Elusive colouring' plays a scarcely less important 

 part in the protection of birds than of their eggs. This 

 is the case to a greater extent probably than we yet 

 realise not only with such birds as the Night-jar and 

 Woodcock, which, unless the light happens to glance 

 from an eye, may easily be passed on the ground 



