180 A HISTORY OF 



vex sid 3 af the bill shall only touch the ground : and in this position 

 the animal appears, as it were, standing upon its head. In this man- 

 ner it paddles and moves the bill about, and seizes whatever fish or 

 insect happens to offer. For this purpose the upper chap is notched 

 at the edges, so as to hold its prey with greater security. Catesby, 

 however, gives a different account of their feeding. According to 

 him, they thus place the upper chap undermost, and so work about, 

 in order to pick up a seed from the bottom of the water, that resem- 

 bles millet : but as in picking up this, they necessarily also suck in a 

 greater quantity of mud, their bill is toothed at the edges in such a 

 manner as to let out the mud while they swallow the grain. 



Their time of breeding is according to the climate in which they 

 reside : in North America they breed in our summer ; on the other 

 side the line they take the most favourable season of the year. They 

 build their nests in extensive marshes, and where they are in no dan- 

 ger of a surprise. The nest is not less curious than the animal that 

 builds it. It is raised from the surface of the pool about a foot and a 

 half, formed of mud scraped up together, and hardened by the sun, 

 or the heat of the bird's body ; it resembles a truncated cone, or one 

 of the pots which we see placed on chimneys ; on the top it is hol- 

 lowed out to the shape of the bird, and in that cavity the female lays 

 her eggs, without any lining but the well-cemented mud that forms 

 the sides of the building. She always lays two eggs, and no more ; 

 and, as her legs are immoderately long, she straddles on the nest, 

 while her legs hang down, one on each side, into the water. 



The young ones are a long while before they are able to fly ; but 

 they run with amazing swiftness. They are sometimes caught, and 

 very different from the old ones, suffer themselves to be carried home, 

 and are tamed very easily. In five or six days they become familiar, 

 eat out of the hand, and drink a surprising quantity of sea-water. 

 But though they are easily rendered domestic, they are not reared 

 without the greatest difficulty : for they generally pine away for want 

 of their natural supplies, and die in a short time. While they are 

 yet young, their colours are very different from those lively tints they 

 acquire with age. In their first year they are covered with a plumage 

 of a white colour, mixed with gray ; in the second year the whole 

 body is white, with here and there a slight tint of scarlet ; and the 

 great covert feathers of the wings are black : the third year the 

 bird acquires all its beauty ; the plumage of the whole body is scar- 

 let, except some of the feathers in the wings, that st.ill retain their sa- 

 ble hue. Of these beautiful plumes the savages make various orna- 

 nnents, and the bird is sometimes skinned by the Europeans to make 

 muffs. But these have diminished in their price, since we have ob 

 tained the art of dying feathers of the brightest scarlet 



