THE THICK-KNEE. 95 



according as the weather is more or less favourable. The 

 cry of the male is rather loud, but grating, and something 

 resembling that made by an ungreased iron axle. They 

 spend little time or labour in the construction of their nests ; 

 indeed, the finding of food in the dry and barren places, 

 which are their natural pastures, keeps them in abundant 

 occupation. The sand or earth scraped and levelled a little, 

 is the place where the eggs are deposited. These are two in 

 number, of a light ashen grey, with reddish brown blotches ; 

 and the incubation lasts about thirty days. The male takes, 

 no part in the labour of incubation, but he remains all the 

 time in the close vicinity of the nest ; and while the female 

 squats close on his giving the alarm-call, he uses his art to 

 tempt intruders to a distance. 



The young, as is the case with those of all birds that 

 deposit their eggs on the earth without any nest, are at first 

 covered with thick down, of a greyish colour ; they can run 

 as soon as they break the shell, and the mother usually con- 

 ducts them to some stony place, and for some time assists. 

 them in finding their food, by turning over the smaller 

 stones, under which they find earth-worms, slugs, and other 

 small animals. 



The down upon the young of those birds which lay their 

 eggs on the bare earth, appears to be part of a very general 

 law in the animal economy. Of all animal coverings, down, 

 or, which is nearly the same thing, fur, or hair in a state of 

 very minute division, appears to require the least assistance 

 from heat in its production, and to be the best preservative 

 against the effects of cold after it is formed. Perfect feathers, 

 on the other hand, appear to require the most heat ; and 

 hence all birds which have the young without down, con- 

 struct warm nests, in which the young remain for some time 

 quite helpless ; and in cases where the feathers are in a for- 

 ward state, the male birds either alternate with the females 



