28 



The Sheep-Fluke. 



The alertness of the brooding bird is almost incredible. A slight move- 

 ment of my foot at 50 yards distance was at once detected, and was sufficient 

 to cause the bird to silently leave the nest. I could scarcely credit this at 

 first, and thought it must be a mere coincidence ; but no, on repeating the 

 experiment the same thing occurred twice more in succession. At another 

 nest the same thing occurred. The female seemed more alert in this respect 

 than the male. 



The young are expert at voiding the ordure over the edge of the nest, and 

 the nest may sometimes be discovered by the ordure on the ground beneath. 

 This leads me to suspect that the building over water may be for secresy, 

 the ordure being dropped into the water. 



The young fly in about a month, and thenceforth look out more for them- 

 selves. 



In an emergency it appears the parents will attempt to teach the art of 

 flying to quite young birds. A nest containing a pair of young birds unable 





'^/■.^- . ""* 



" Passing afong the banks of a river in a locality frequented by tliese birds, I have often come upon these 



favourite trees." 



to fly, but one of which could flutter, was placed on the ground. The 

 parents tried to entice the young out of the nest by their cries and 

 motions. The male in particular would stand on a limb near the ground and 

 wave his wings in imitation of flying, and the conclusion was irresistible 

 that he was showing the young what he wanted them to do, namely, to make 

 an effort to fly. Every flutter of the young was encouraged by special cries of 

 the old birds, as much as to say, " That's it !" " Keep on !" " That's right !" 



The Pee-wee lives to verify the saying that there are no birds in last year's 

 nests. A nest is never used but once, though a second nest is not infre- 

 quently built alongside the first. On several occasions I have seen no less 

 than four nests, on boughs varying from 1 to G inches in diameter, in the 

 same tree, all in various stages of decay ; and as I have never seen more 

 than one occupied nest in a tree at a time the conclusion is fair that nests 

 are built in succession in favourable trees, perhaps by the same pair of birds. 



Passing along the banks of a river in a locality frequented by these birds, 

 I have often come upon these favourite trees, as they may fairly be called, 

 but though I have often tried to fathom the reason for the birds' choice I have 

 never succeeded. Truly, such trees were generally of large size, but why 

 these particular ones and not others equally large, and to me, at least, as 

 attractive, I do not know, and yet I have no doubt there is some very good 



