224 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



tiful example of maternal devotedness to the 

 duty of incubation. One of these birds has been 

 known to have been found sitting upon its eggs, 

 and being taken by the labourer, to have made 

 no attempt to escape, allowing herself and her 

 eggs to be carried away in a hat to some dis- 

 tance. The eggs being then deposited in another 

 place she continued to sit, and after a little time 

 her patience and courage were rewarded by the 

 appearance of a numerous offspring. In another 

 instance, a partridge is described as having selected 

 the top of an oak pollard for the situation of her 

 nest. This tree had one end of the bars of a stile, 

 where there was a footpath, fastened into it, and 

 by the passengers going over the stile before she 

 sat alone, she was disturbed and discovered. Yet 

 even this dangerous proximity to human inter- 

 course did not affect her ; she continued to incu- 

 bate the full period of twenty-one days; and 

 ultimately hatched sixteen eggs. Her brood, 

 scrambling down the short and rough boughs which 

 grew out all round from the trunk of the tree, 

 reached the ground in safety. 



But two anecdotes related by Mr. Jesse are still 

 more strongly indicative of the maternal love of" 



