OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. Ill 



blotched, others have the colouring matter displayed in nearly black streaks and 

 scratches. They measure on an average 2'1 inches in length by 1'5 inch in 

 breadth. The male assists the female in the duty of incubation, especially during 

 the day. This, according to Naumann, lasts about seventeen days ; but other 

 writers state a month. When the nest is approached, the sitting bird quits the 

 eggs at the first alarm, and leaves them to the safety their eminently protective 

 colours ensure, gererally running for several yards before taking wing. One 

 brood only is reared in the season, but if the first clutch of eggs comes to grief, 

 another clutch is usually laid. The young chicks are able to run almost directly 

 they are hatched, and soon follow their parents in quest of food. 



Diagnostic cliaracters. — (Edicnemus, with no vermiculations on the 

 upper parts, with the breast conspicuously streaked, a pale and a dark wing bar 

 across the smaller wing covert, and with the greater wing coverts tipped with 

 white. Length, 16 to 17 inches. 



