178 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
molestation; he presents a ludicrous spectacle 
when compelled to walk or rather to trample and 
roll ahead of his tormentors. The Sea Hawk 
hates walking, and detests rapid walking; it 
was always therefore an entertainment to expedite 
his uneasy gait without, however, forcing him to 
rise, to note his ungainly progression, the anxiety 
with which he heard our steps behind, his per- 
turbed glancings from side to side; finally, his 
relief when at last he could float off into the 
unobstructed air. Although thus careful of their 
pinions, and unfitted by the formation of their 
feet to move or rest except on rock or sand, I have 
nevertheless noted a female bird, agitated by our 
presence near her nest, sometimes alight on the 
unstable tupari-tops. 
Sea Hawk chicks become wanderers from an 
early age. The nest, indeed, is so shallow a struc- 
ture—often a mere depression in the short wiry 
turf—that any slight hollow where the parent 
bird may chance to be sitting can excusably be 
mistaken by the youngsters for their original 
home. From early life the nestlings seem to 
realise the environment proper to their race, and 
from the moment of hatching delight in the tide- 
rip running fiercely beneath them, the break of 
the seas on naked rock, the sting of the driven 
spray. Their birthplace is oftenest on the edge 
of the cliff, and it is only whilst still mere animated 
