CHAP. III. PARENTAL LOVE IN BIRDS. 67 



hasten to a short distance, stretch out its feathers, and 

 appear to " tumble heels over head," till it has enticed 

 its enemy to a distance * ; while, on similar occasions, 

 the pewit resorts to the same expedient of appearing 

 wounded, as soon as it perceives the approach of a 

 stranger. Sheldrakes are equally ingenious : during 

 the period of incubation, which lasts thirty days, the 

 male keeps watch on some adjoining hillock, which he 

 only leaves that he may satisfy the calls of hunger, or 

 occupy the post of the female while she quits it for 

 food. After the young are hatched, the parents lead, 

 or sometimes carry them in their bills, towards the sea ; 

 and if, interrupted in their progress, it is said that they 

 employ numberless arts to draw off the attention of the 

 observer, f 



(85.) The eider duck, and some other birds, pluck the 

 down off their own bodies, to shelter and comfort their 

 helpless young. Others will voluntarily undergo the 

 pains of hunger for the same object ; refusing to leave 

 their nests, until perfectly exhausted for want of sus- 

 tenance : while some, again, are carefully provided with 

 food by their mates, most of whom, like the sheldrake, 

 watch somewhere near, to ward ofi^ or to give timely 

 notice of the approach of, danger, and to while away 

 the time by his song. The blue-bellied parrakeet is an 

 instance both of parental and connubial attachmnent. 

 This bird, like the eider duck, lines its nest with 

 the down stripped from its own breast ; and La Vail- 

 lant informs us that it receives the most assiduous 

 attentions from the male during the whole progress of 

 nidification, both Afterwards uniting to display the 

 same affection towards their young ; these latter, for 

 the first six months after they are hatched, are fre- 

 quently seen seated by the side of their mother, while 

 her faithful partner places himself close by, and, if 

 unable to reach the little ones, he gives their food to 

 her, and she distributes it to her progeny. Innu- 



* Montague's Orn. Diet. vol. ii. 

 t Bewick's British Birds, vol. ii. p. 343. 

 F 2 



