158 



Amusing stratagems. 



are able to run within two- or three days after 

 they are hatched. 



The parent exhibits the greatest attachment to 

 them ; and the arts used by this bird to allure 

 boys and dogs from the place where they are 

 running, are extremely amusing. She does not 

 wait the arrival of her enemies at the nest, but 

 boklly pushes out to meet them. When as near 

 as she dare venture, she rises from the ground 

 with a loud screaming voice, as if just flushed 

 from hatching, though probably at the same time 

 not within a hundred yards of her nest. She now 

 flies with great clamour and apparent anxiety; 

 whining and screaming round the invaders, 

 striking at them with her wings, and sometimes 

 fluttering as if she was wounded. To complete 

 the deception, she becomes still more clamorous 

 as she retires from the nest. If very near, she 

 appears altogether unconcerned ; and her cries 

 cease in proportion as her fears are augmented. 

 When approached by dogs, she flies heavily, at 

 a little distance before them, as if maimed; still 

 vociferous, and still bold, but never offering to 

 move towards the quarter where her young are 

 stationed. The dogs pursue in expectation every 

 moment of seizing the parent, and by this means 

 actually lose the young; for the cunning bird, 

 having thus drawn them off to a proper distance, 

 exerts her powers, and leaves her astonished pur- 

 suers to gaze at the rapidity of her flight. 





