194 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



assists their velocity. But, as in seeking 

 their food, they are often obliged to change 

 their station ; so also are they equally swift 

 of wing, and traverse immense tracts of 

 country without much fatigue. 



It has been thought by some, that a part 

 of this class lived upon an oily slime, found 

 in the bottoms of ditches and of weedy pools ; 

 they were thence termed, by AVilloughby, 

 Mudsuckers. But later discoveries have shown 

 that, in these places, they hunt for the cater- 

 pillars and worms of insects. From hence, 

 therefore, we may generally assert, that all 

 birds of this class live upon animals of one 

 kind or another. The long-billed birds suck 

 up worms and insects from the bottom ; those 

 furnished with shorter bills, pick up such 

 insects as lie nearer the surface of the mea- 

 dow, or among the sands on the sea-shore. 



Thus the curlew, the woodcock, and the 

 snipe, are ever seen in plashy brakes, and 

 under covered hedges, assiduously employed 

 in seeking out insects in their worm state ; 



or olive brown, elegant marked on the edge of each fea- 

 ther with small roundish white spots: the quills are 

 without spots, and are of a darker brown: the secondaries 

 and tertials are very long : the insides of the wings are 

 dusky, edged with white gray; and the inside coverts 

 next the body are curiously barred, from the shaft of each 

 feather to the edge, with narrow white lines, formed 

 nearly of the shape of two sides of a triangle. The belly, 

 vent, tail coverts, and tail, are white ; the last broadly 

 barred with black, the middle feathers having four bars, 

 and those next to them decreasing in the number of 

 bars towards the outside feathers, which are quite plain: 

 the legs are green. 



The Dunlin (see Plate XIX. fig. 14.) This is the 

 size of a jack snipe. The upper parts of the plumage 

 are ferruginous, marked with large spots of black and a 

 little white; the lower parts are white, with dusky 

 streaks. It is found in all the northern parts of Europe. 



The Lapwing or Peewit. This bird is about the size 

 of a common pigeon, and is covered with very thick 

 plumes, which are black at the roots, but of a different 

 colour on the outward part. The feathers on the belly, 

 thighs, and under the wings, are most of them white as 

 snow ; and the under part on the outside of the wings 

 white, but black lower. It has a great liver divided 

 into two parts; and, as some authors affirm, no gall. 

 Lapwings are found in most parts of Europe, as far 

 northward as Iceland. In the winter they are met with 

 in Persia, and Egypt. Their chief food is worms ; and 

 sometimes they may be seen in flocks nearly covering 

 the low marshy grounds in search of these, which they 

 draw with great dexterity from their holes. When the 

 bird meets with one of these little clusters of pellets, or 

 rolls of earth that are thrown out by the worm's perfora- 

 tions, it first gently removes the mud from the mouth 

 of the hole, then strikes the ground at the side with its 

 foot, and steadily and attentively waits the issue; the 

 reptile, alarmed by the shock, emerges from its retreat, 

 and is instantly seized. These birds make a great noise 

 with their wings when flying; and are called pee-wits, 

 in Scotland and the north of England, from their parti- 

 cular cry. In other parts of the island, they are called 

 green plovers. They remain here the whole year. 

 The female lays two eggs on the dry ground, near some 

 marsh, upon a little bed which it prepares of dry grass. 

 She sits about three weeks ; and the young, are able to 



and it seems, from their fatness, that they 

 find a plentiful supply. Nature, indeed, has 

 furnished them with very convenient instru- 

 ments for procuring their food. Their bills 

 are made sufficiently long for searching ; but 

 still more they are endowed with an exquisite 

 sensibility at the point, for feeling their provi- 

 sion. They are furnished with no less than 

 three pair of nerves, equal almost to the optic 

 nerves in thickness ; which pass from the roof 

 of the mouth, and run along the upper chap 

 to the point. 



Nor are those birds with shorter bills, and 

 destitute of such convenient instruments, with- 

 out a proper provision made for their subsis- 

 tence. The lapwing, the sandpiper, and the 

 redshank, run with surprising rapidity along 

 the surface of the marsh or the sea-shore, 

 quarter their ground with great dexterity, 

 and leave nothing of the insect kind that hap- 

 pens to lie on the surface. These, however, 

 are neither so fat nor so delicate as the former; 

 as they are obliged to toil more for a subsis- 



run two or three days after they are hatched. The follow- 

 ing cut represents a crested or Green Lapwing. 



The Turnstone Is about the size of a thrush ; the 

 bill is nearly an inch long, and turns a little upwards. 

 The head, throat, and belly, are white: the breast black ; 

 and the neck encircled with a black colour. The upper 

 parts of the plumage are of a pale reddish brown. These 

 birds take their name from their method of finding their 

 food, which is by turning up small stones with their bills 

 to get the insects that lurk under them. 



The WTiimbrel (see Plate XIX. fig. 13.) The whim- 

 brel is only about half the size of the curlew, which it 

 very nearly resembles in shape, the colours of its plum- 

 age, and manner of its living. It is about seventeen 

 inches in length, and twenty-nine in breadth ; and weighs 

 about fourteen ounces. The bill is about three inches 

 long; the upper mandible black, the under one pale red. 

 The upper part of the head is black, divided in the 

 middle of the crown by a white line from the brown to 

 the hinder part ; between the bill and the eyes there is 

 a darkish oblong spot ; the sides of the head, the neck, 

 and breast, are of a pale brown, marked with narrow 

 dark streaks pointing downwards ; the belly is of the 

 same colour, but the dark streaks upon it are larger ; 

 about the vent it is quite white ; the lower part of the 

 back is also white. The rump and tail feathers are 

 barred with black and white ; the shafts of the quillg 

 are white, the outer webs totally black, but the inner 

 ones marked with large white spots: the secondary quills 

 are spotted in the same manner on both the inner and 

 outer webs. The legs and feet are of the same shape 

 and colour as those of the curlew. 



