282 BRITISH BIRDS. 



breast and shoulders. The back, wing coverts, 

 rump, upper tail coverts, and sides of the belly 

 to the vent, and tail, are white : a dusky stripe, 

 tinged with rufous, runs along the middle from the 

 breast, the whole length of the belly: part of the 

 scapulars next the wing are black, and those next 

 the body white : the bastard wing, and some of 

 the first primary quills, are black ; the exterior 

 webs of the next adjoining ones are glossed with 

 gold green, which forms the speculum or beauty 

 spot of the wings : this spot is bounded, and partly 

 covered by the orange webs of the three succeeding 

 quill feathers, which separate it from the scapulars. 

 The tail is white, but some of its feathers are tipped 

 with black: the legs pale red. The female is less 

 than the male, and her plumage is not so vivid 

 and beautiful. She makes her nest, and rears her 

 young, under ground, in the rabbit holes which are 

 made in the sand hills near the sea-shore : it is 

 chiefly formed of the fine down plucked from her 

 own breast ; she lays eight or nine roundish white 

 eggs, and the incubation lasts about thirty days. 

 During this time, the male, who is very atten- 

 tive to his charge, keeps watch in the day-time 

 on some adjoining hillock, where he can see all 

 around him, and which he quits only when im- 

 pelled by hunger, to procure subsistence. The 

 female also leaves the nest, for the same purpose, 

 in the mornings and evenings, at which times the 

 male takes his turn and supplies her place. As 

 soon as the young are hatched, or are able to 

 waddle along, they are conducted, and sometimes 

 carried in the bill, by the parents, to the full tide, 

 upon which they launch without fear, and are not 



