236 Birds. 



days, you will then yourself experience the treatment your dog lately 

 met with. They have frequently come so close to me when among 

 their haunts at such a time, that had I extended my arm ( and they 

 had not on that account deviated from their flight) I could have 

 seized them w^ith my hand. They will even settle on the ground 

 within a few paces of you, exclaiming pitifully all the time you re- 

 main among them. The cause of this change in their manner is, I 

 imagine, that now their young have been hatched, and they seek, by 

 exposure of themselves, to take oft' your attention from the nestlings. 

 I have never been fortunate enough to find the young, though I have 

 more than once engaged in the search, and been assisted by a dog 

 which had some dexterity in finding their nests. The word nest, by 

 the way, is almost a compliment, for it is often nothing more than a 

 slight depression in the earth, on one of the highest parts of the sal- 

 terns. The eggs are however occasionally washed away notwithstand- 

 ing this precaution. T have found several nests in the midst of grass 

 and other herbage ; these resembled very much, though of course 

 much smaller, the seat rabbits make for themselves in a meadow 

 drain or the coarse grass close under a hedge ; and the bird when 

 sitting must be almost completely concealed : but they are frequently 

 quite open, and with hardly a blade of grass near them, and the most 

 elaborate have only a few withered stalks laid in the bottom. I have 

 never found more than four eggs, nor less than two : the former num- 

 ber I take to be the usual one. They are large in proportion to the 

 size of the bird, and placed in the nest without much regard to sym- 

 metry of figure. 



Early in August, the hatch having been some time over, and the 

 young birds acquired some power of flight, they may be and are shot 

 in considerable numbers, as they are then more easily got at, — the 

 young probably from want of power to take long flights, and the old 

 from being unwilling to leave their offspring. They are sometimes 

 prepared for the table, and are by some thought good eating. I have 

 heard the preference given to them over a snipe, but this was before 

 the snipe had come to its perfection, viz. the middle of September. 



About the end of August and September I have seen them in very 

 large flocks, consisting of some hundreds probably, sitting at the edge 

 of the smaller creeks waiting for the recession of the water. It was 

 quite out of the question to get near them on such occasions, as 

 every pair of eyes was at liberty to watch the approach of the visitor. 

 The notes uttered by the birds when thus assembled are totally dif- 

 ferent from those they emit at any other time. Most persons are fa- 



