59° 



SHIELDRAKE. Class II. 



webs of the next are a fine green, and thofe of 

 the three fucceeding orange ; the coverts of the tail 

 are white; the tail itfelf of the fame color, and ex- 

 cept the two outmoft feathers tipt with black; the 

 belly white, divided lengthways by a black line -, 

 the legs of a pale flefh color. 



Thefe birds inhabit the fea coafts, and breed in 

 rabbet holes. When a perfon attempts to take 

 their young, the old birds mew great addrefs in 

 diverting his attention from the brood ; they will 

 fly along the ground as if wounded, till the for- 

 mer are got into a place of fecurity, and then return 

 and collect them together. From this inftinctive 

 cunning, burner, with good reafon, imagines them 

 to be the chenalopex *, or f ox-goo fe of the antients : 

 the natives of the Orknies to this day call them the 

 Jfygoofe, from an attribute of that quadruped. They 

 lay fifteen or fixteen eggs, white, and of a roundifh 

 ihape. In winter they collect in great flocks. 

 Their flelh is very rank and bad. 



* Plinii, Lib. X. c. 22, 



Les 



