BRITISH BIRDS^ 
343 
pofe, in tlie mornings and evenings, at which times 
the male takes his turn and fupplies her place. As 
foon as the young are hatched, or are able to wad- 
die along, they are conduced, and fometimes car- 
ried in the bill, by the parents, to the full tide, upon 
which they launch without fear, and are not feen 
afterwards out of tide-mark until they are well able 
to fly lulled by the roarings of the flood, they find 
themfelves at home amidft an ample ftore of their 
natural food, which confifts of fand-hoppers, fea- 
worms, &:c. or fmall fliell-fifh, and the innumera- 
ble flioais of the little fry, which have not yet ven- 
tured out into the great deep, but are left on the 
beach, or tolTed to the furface of the water by the 
reftlefs furge. 
If this family, in their progrefs from the neft to 
the fea, happen to be interrupted by any perfon, 
the young ones, it is faid, feek the firft flielter, and 
fquat clofe down, and the parent birds fly off : 
then commences that truly curious fcene, dictated 
by an inftindl analogous to reafon, the fame as has 
been already noticed in the Mallard and the Par- 
tridge : the tender mother drops, at no great dif- 
tance from her helplefs brood, trails herfelf along 
the ground, flaps it with her wings, and appears to 
ftruggle as if Ihe were wounded, in order to attra£l: 
attention, and tempt a purfuit after her. Should 
thefe wily fchemes, in which fhe is alfo aided by her 
mate, fucceed, they both return when the danger 
