205 
of their sometimes being carried thither in 
the beaks of their parents. 
If a person happens to interrupt the fa- 
mily in their progress to the sea, the young 
squat close down, and the parent birds 
fly off: the female however affects to 
reel, and fall at no great distance from her 
helpless brood; she trails on her belly, 
and strikes the earth with her wings, and 
appears as if she were wounded, in order 
to attract attention, and tempt a pursuit after 
her. Should these wily schemes, in which 
she is aided by her mate, succeed, they both 
return when the danger is over, to their ter- 
rified offspring. 
The eggs of the Shiel drake are frequent- 
ly taken, and hatched under a tame 
Duck, and the young readily brought 
up.# Yet, notwithstanding the greatest 
attention having been paid to the rearing 
of this elegant species, in order to its domes- 
tication, we can find only one or two in- 
* Latham says that they are " apt after a few years, 
to attempt the mastery over the rest of the poultry ; 
and we have seen some that were even vicious, attacking 
©very thing that came in their way." 
