196 



HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



tasted. On the Alps, and other high moun- 

 tains, says Willoughby, the woodcock conti- 

 nues all summer ; I myself have flushed them 

 on the top of Mount Jura, in June and July. 

 The eggs are long, of a pale red colour, and 

 stained with deeper spots arid clouds. The 

 nests of the curlew and the snipe are fre- 

 quently found; and some of these perhaps 

 never entirely leave this island. 



It is thus that the same habits are, in some 

 measure, common to all ; but in nestling, and 

 bringing up their young, one method takes 

 place universally. As they all run and feed 

 upon the ground, so they are all found to nes- 

 tle there. The number of eggs generally to 

 be seen in every nest, is from two to four ; 

 never under, and very seldom exceeding. 

 The nest is made without any art; but the 

 eggs are either laid in some little depression 

 of the earth, or on a few bents and long grass, 

 that scarcely preserve them from the moisture 

 below. Yet such is the heat of the body of 

 these birds, that the time of incubation is 

 shorter than with any other of the same size. 

 The magpie, for instance, takes twenty-one 

 days to hatch its young ; the lapwing takes 

 but fourteen, Whether the animal oil, with 

 which these birds abound, gives them this su- 

 perior warmth, I cannot tell ; but there is no 

 doubt of their quick incubation. 



In their seasons of courtship, they pair as 

 other birds ; but not without violent contests be- 

 tween the males, for the choice of the female. 

 The lapwing and the plover are often seen to 

 fight among themselves : but there is one little 

 bird of this tribe, called the Ruff> that has got 



the epithet of the fighter^ merely from its 

 great perseverance and animosity on these oc- 

 casions. In the beginning of spring, when 

 these birds arrive among our marshes, they 

 are observed to engage with desperate fury 

 against each other : it is then that the fowlers, 

 seeing them intent on mutual destruction, 

 spread their nets over them, and take them in 

 great numbers. Yet even in captivity their 

 animosity still continues : the people that fatten 

 them up for sale, are obliged to shut them up 

 in close dark rooms; for if they let ever so 

 little light in among them, the turbulent pri- 

 soners instantly fall to fighting with each 



other, and never cease till each has killed its 

 antagonist, especially, says Willoughby, if 

 any body stands by. A similar animosity, 

 though in a less degree, prompts all this tribe; 

 but when they have paired, and begun to lay, 

 their contentions are then over. 



The place these birds chiefly choose to 

 breed in, is in some island surrounded with 

 sedgy moors, where men seldom resort ; and 

 in such situations I have often seen the ground 

 so strewed with eggs and nests, that one could 

 scarcely take a step, without treading upon 

 some of them. As soon as a stranger intrudes 

 upon these retreats, the whole colony is up, 

 and a hundred different screams are heard 

 from every quarter. The arts of the lapwing, 

 to allure men or dogs from her nest, are per- 

 fectly amusing. When she perceives the 

 enemy approaching, she never waits till they 

 arrive at her nest, but boldly runs to meet 

 them : when she has come as near them as she 

 dares to venture, she then rises with a loud 

 screaming before them, seeming as if she were 

 just flushed from hatching ; while she is then 

 probably a hundred yards from the nest. 

 Thus she flies with great clamour and an- 

 xiety, whining and screaming around the in- 

 vaders, striking at them with her wings, and 

 fluttering as if she were wounded. To add 

 to the deceit, she appears still more clamo- 

 rous, as more remote from the nest. If 

 she sees them very near, she then seems 

 to be quite unconcerned, and her cries cease, 

 while her terrors are really augmenting. If 

 there be dogs, she flies heavily at a little 

 distance before them, as if maimed; still 

 vociferous and still bold, but never offering to 

 move towards the quarter where her treasure 

 is deposited. The dog pursues, in hopes 

 every moment of seizing the parent, and by 

 this means actually loses the young ; for the 

 cunning bird, when she has thus drawn him 

 off to a proper distance, then puts forth her 

 powers, and leaves her astonished pursuers to 

 gaze at the rapidity of her flight. The eggs 

 of all these birds are highly valued by the 

 luxurious ; they are boiled hard, and thus 

 served up without any further preparation. 



As the young of this class are soon hatched, 

 so, when excluded, they quickly arrive at 

 ! maturity. They run about after the mother 

 as soon as they leave the egg; and being 

 covered with a thick down, want very little 

 of that clutching which all birds of the poultry 

 kind, that follow the mother, indispensably 

 require. They come to their adult state long 

 before winter; and then flock together till 

 the breeding season returns, which for a 

 while dissolves their society. 



As the flesh of almost all these birds is in 

 high estimation, so many methods have been 

 contrived for taking them. That used in 



