Birds. 4287 



have little doubt that I each time disturbed the pareut bird. I have 

 since learned, that most birds, tired with such persecution, would have 

 forsaken the nest ; but not so the affectionate hedge accentor : 

 alarmed at my frequent interruptions and prying eyes, she took 

 another course, and set about a new nest : she must have prepared it 

 with marvellous rapidity, for on visiting my treasure after some two or 

 three hours' respite on the day of its first discovery, I found to my 

 surprise that it contained but three eggs : this astonished me a good 

 deal, but T concluded that I had made a mistake in the first instance, 

 and that there had never been more than that number. While pon- 

 dering upon this, and just preparing to withdraw, I saw the hedge 

 accentor return, and hurrying into the nest before my eyes, seize an 

 egg in its bill between the upper and lower mandible, and fly away 

 without the smallest apparent inconvenience. I had no idea of this 

 being an unusual occurrence, 1 only knew it was more than schoolboy 

 could bear, to stand by and see the eggs which he had found 

 and considered his lawful prize, thus ravished from his sight : so, 

 without more ado, and fearing a still further diminution of my already 

 much lessened prize, I seized the nest containing the two remaining 

 eggs, and bore them away. I was but a boy, some eleven or twelve 

 years old at the time, but I recollect the above circumstance as 

 vividly as if it happened but yesterday, and I have no doubt about 

 the accuracy of my memory regarding it. 



Now if the hedge accentor can grasp its egg in its beak, and fly off 

 with it with ease, is it too much to infer that the pheasant, the sky- 

 lark, the dunlin, the moorhen, the partridge, and the spotted sand- 

 piper removed their respective eggs by the same means ? I grant 

 that the eggs of all these birds are of considerable size, in proportion 

 to their bodies, and especially those of the last named ; and as from 

 the account given by Audubon, it does not seem that in this instance 

 the eggs were removed to any great distance, perhaps in this case 

 they were rather pushed than carried : but with regard to the other 

 birds named, and to the many similar instances continually occurring, 

 I have little doubt that the beak is the instrument used in the removal. 

 That the mandibles even of the short-beaked birds will open to 

 a great width is manifest to any one who goes near a nest of young 

 birds in the spring: see to what extent the voung blackbird will 

 stretch open its mouth ! what a gape is displayed by the young lin- 

 net asking for food ! and as a proof that the same faculty is not want- 

 ing in the parent bird, a very interesting account is recorded by Mr. 

 Bury in the ' Zoologist' (Zool. 932) of a moorhen seizing a moderate 



