FEATHERED FRAUDS. 131 



-can. Then they remain as quiet and still as 

 though they had suddenly been transformed into 

 stones, and no noise will rouse them from their 

 assumed stupor until the mother's well under- 

 stood cry assures them that all is safe once more. 

 The first natural impulse of a young bird of 

 almost any species is to try and conceal itself, 

 either by creeping into a hole or squatting close 

 upon the ground. Some young birds, such as the 

 chicks of the Grebe or the Waterhen, dive into 

 the water the moment harm betides, and come up 

 far away among the reeds and rushes growing in 

 the water, or conceal themselves in the fringe of 

 vegetation round the bank. 



I cannot leave this interesting subject of 

 feathered frauds without giving an extract from 

 an old note-book of mine relating to the Ringed 

 Plover. It was in June, on the low, sandy coast of 

 the Wash, between Wainfleet Haven and the now 

 rapidly rising watering-place of Skegness, then a 

 mere village, that I came across this charming 

 little feathered favourite of mine and observed the 

 following incident : I had known this bird bred here, 

 in company with the Lesser Tern, for years, and 

 had often taken its eggs from the sand ; but to- 

 day the birds had young ones only a few hours 

 old. I found the stained and broken egg-shells 

 lying on the shore, and the anxious movements of 

 the old Plovers told me the young were not far 

 off. For an hour or more I tramped up and down 

 among the shingle without discovering a single 



K 2 



