4290 Birds. 



be effected by the parent carrying them in her bill : " of the hooded 

 merganser, " the young, like those of the wood duck, are conveyed to 

 the water by their mother, who carries them gently in her bill." And 

 the same proceeding is recounted of several other species. Selby, 

 too, in describing the nest of a wild duck high up in a tree, expresses 

 his opinion that the young were conveyed to the ground in their 

 parent's bill. 



Others use their "feet" Thus, Bishop Stanley says that the ring 

 dotterel is enabled on the appearance of danger to carry its young- 

 out of harm's way : and states that on a rocky shore in Anglesey one 

 of these birds " finding herself surprised, immediately rose with one of 

 the young ones, either caught up or clinging to her by its own 

 instinctive efforts." The same author recounts how a brood of 

 young owls having been taken from their nest, and placed on a barn- 

 floor, the parent birds u gliding down to them, entwined their feet 

 about them, and carried them back to the nest: " and that as often 

 as the young were brought away, so often did the old ones con- 

 vey them back in the same manner. And another instance of the owl 

 carrying away her only young one in her claws on a sudden alarm is 

 given in Couch's * Illustrations of Instinct.' Jesse, in his ' Gleanings,' 

 speaks of a skylark rising out of some stubble, and crossing the road, 

 with a young one in its claws; though on this occasion, the old pro- 

 verb of " out of the frying-pan into the fire " was certainly fulfilled, 

 for the poor chick was dropped and killed by the fall. But the prin- 

 cipal instance which I have to adduce of birds removing their young 

 in their claws is the woodcock : breeding as it usually does in dry 

 situations, in thick cover and among dead grass, fern and leaves, it is 

 often necessary to remove its newly hatched young ones to a great 

 distance, for the purpose of feeding : this was perceived by natu- 

 ralists of the last century : but when Scopoli jumped to the conclu- 

 sion that the beak was the means employed, and wrote, "pullos rostro 

 portat fugiens ab hoste," the accurate observer of Selborne (though 

 candour forbad him to deny the truth of the statement, against which 

 he could bring no proof) remarked, "that the long, unwieldy bill of 

 the woodcock is perhaps the worst adapted of any among the winged 

 creation for such a feat of natural affection," and declined belief in it. 

 Gilbert White (as usual) was correct. Yarrell speaks of gamekeepers 

 and others having often witnessed the woodcock in the act of bearing 

 away its young in its claws. St. John, in his ' Highland Sports,' 

 mentions it as a well ascertained fact, adding, that the old bird " lifts 

 her young in her feet, and so carries them one by one : " and Stanley 



