THE DUNLIN. 





off, accompanied by two young ones. On finding herself 

 surprised she immediately rose with one of the young ones, 

 either caught up, or clinging to her by its own instinctive 

 efforts. Whether from a wish to remain as near as possible 

 while the other was in danger, or from the additional weight, 

 could not be ascertained; but her flight was short, and she 

 alighted on a rock at no great distance. The remaining little 

 one was with difficulty overtaken, as it ran with great activity 

 and swiftness, although very young, being covered with down, 

 and evidently not long hatched. Most of the birds of this 

 tribe make no regular nests, but deposit their eggs, four in 

 number, either on the bare sand, just beyond the high-water 

 mark, or like the Dunlin, or Sea-Snipe, on the ground, among 

 long grass and heather; exposed, as the eggs then are, both 

 to weather and observation, the bird contrives to place them 

 so as to take up the smallest possible space; and this she 

 effects by making them all meet at their smaller ends, which 

 also taper more than most other eggs. 



The four little eggs, for they are much smaller than a Snipe's, 

 huddled in so narrow a compass, require a keen and accus- 

 tomed eye to see them, and at the same time are easily covered 

 by the parent bird. Her affection for her young is not con- 

 fined to them when unable to take care of themselves after 

 hatching, but is manifested when they are still in the egg ; for, 

 should a stranger disturb her, she will, instead of running or 

 flying away in her usual manner, immediately affect lameness, 

 or decoy him away from the nest by tumbling over and over, as 

 if in the last stage of weakness or decrepitude ; or, if actually 

 found upon her nest, she will sometimes nobly persevere in sacri- 

 ficing herself rather than desert it. In two instances amongst 

 many, they were found to sit so close, that they allowed them- 

 selves to be lifted off their nests, rather than fly away. It is 

 remarkable how much the same instinctive habits prevail in 

 similar families of birds. Those who may not have had oppor- 

 tunities of witnessing these manoeuvres by the Sandpipers, 

 have probably often watched the similar proceedings of our 

 common Lapwing or Pewit, which decoys a dog or a stranger 

 away, either by screaming close to his ear, as she flits by in a 



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