226 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



him that the partridge must have removed her 

 eggs; and, before he left the field, he had the 

 gratification of finding her safely seated at the 

 foot of a hedge upon twenty-one eggs, of which 

 nineteen were successfully hatched : the round of 

 ploughing had occupied about twenty minutes, in 

 which time she, probably assisted by her mate, 

 had removed the twenty- one eggs to a distance 

 of forty yards. 



Many of the aquatic birds exhibit the utmost 

 attachment to the duties of incubation, and fre- 

 quently become captives to their human foes in 

 consequence. Mr. Hewitson informs us that, 

 whilst incubating, the guillemot, which seems well 

 to merit the name of foolish, will remain so stu- 

 pidly seated, as to allow a noose at the end of a 

 long stick to be passed round its neck. By this 

 means immense numbers of them are taken by the 

 inhabitants of St. Kilda, who subsist entirely on 

 sea-birds. The same naturalist, who had the oppor- 

 tunity of observing the breeding places of the eider 

 ducks on one of the islands in the Norwegian seas, 

 found that this bird also sits intent upon her 

 task. "On one island, which was strictly pre- 

 served, they were in great numbers, and hundreds 



