THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
rather small, sharp, surface markings of umber-hrown, overlaying a smaller 
number of purplish-gray shell-markings. However thickly they may be 
sprinkled, the spots are rarely, if ever, confluent into masses of any size, the 
largest I have seen not exceeding the diameter of a pea. These larger blotches 
are irregular in contour, but the smaller ones are mostly rounded. 
“ Young birds are abroad late in June — curious httle creatures, timid 
and weak, led about by their anxious parents, solicitous for their welfare, 
and ready to engage in the most unequal contests in their behalf. When 
half -grown, but stiU in the down, the little creatures have a curiously clumsy, 
top-heavy look ; their legs look disproportionately large, like those of a young 
colt or calf ; and they may be caught with little difiiculty, as they do not 
run very well. I once happened upon a brood, perhaps two weeks old, rambling 
with their mother over the prairie. She sounded the alarm, to scatter her 
brood, but not before I had secured one of them in my hand. I never saw 
a braver defence attempted than was made by this strong-hearted though 
powerless bird, who, after exhausting her artifices to draw me in pursuit of 
herself, by tumbling about as if desperately wounded, and lying panting 
with out-stretched wings on the grass, gave up hope of saving her young in 
this way, and then almost attacked me, dashing close up and retreating again 
to renew her useless onslaught. She was evidently incited to unusual courage 
by the sight of her little one struggling in my hand. At this downy stage 
the young birds are white below, finely mottled with black, white, and rich 
brown above ; the feet and under mandible are light colored ; the upper 
mandible is blackish. 
“ Although these Tattlers are generally dispersed over the prairies during 
the summer, j^et they afiect particular spots by preference. Away from the 
river valleys, such spots are the numerous depressions of rolling prairie, often 
of great extent, which are moist or even watery at some seasons, and where 
the vegetation is most luxuriant. Here they gather almost into colonies. 
Riding into some such spot in July, when the young birds are being led about 
by their parents, some old bird more watchful than the rest, or nearest to the 
person approaching, gives the alarm with a loud outcry — the young scatter 
and hide, and aU the old birds are soon on wing ; hovering in the air, often 
at a great height, crossing each other’s path, and ceaselessly vociferating 
their displeasure. I have often seen a dozen or twenty overhead at once, 
aU from a httle spot only a few acres in extent. Later in the season, when aU 
the summer’s broods are on the wing, they make up into flocks, often of 
great extent, and old and young together assume the ordinary routine of 
their fives. They leave these northern regions early. I saw none after the 
forepart of September. 
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