. The natural history of birds [microform] : from the French of the Count de Buffon. Ornithology; Birds; Ornithologie; Oiseaux. SHELDRAKE. 177 tc c« « « « « «( U (« « «( C( <c «( «c rents, and if a perfon lights on them, he may take them all; nor will any try to clcape. " I have witnelTed all thefe fadts: I have fre- quently taken, and fcen taken, the eggs from the Sheldrake's ncfl. We dug in the fand, following the burrow to its end: there we found the mother fitting on her eggs ; we ciir- ried them, with their downy coat, in a thick woollen cloth, and fet them under a duck
. The natural history of birds [microform] : from the French of the Count de Buffon. Ornithology; Birds; Ornithologie; Oiseaux. SHELDRAKE. 177 tc c« « « « « «( U (« « «( C( <c «( «c rents, and if a perfon lights on them, he may take them all; nor will any try to clcape. " I have witnelTed all thefe fadts: I have fre- quently taken, and fcen taken, the eggs from the Sheldrake's ncfl. We dug in the fand, following the burrow to its end: there we found the mother fitting on her eggs ; we ciir- ried them, with their downy coat, in a thick woollen cloth, and fet them under a duck. The adopted mother rears the foreign brood with much care, provided none of her own eggs are left with her. The young Sheldrakes have at firft their back white and black, and their belly very white. But they foon lofe this livery, and become gray: then the bill and the legs are blue; about the month of Sep- tember they begin to aflume their beautiful feathers; but it is not before the fecond year that their colours gain all their ; " I have reafon to think, that the male is not completely grown and fit for propagating before this fecond year *; for it is not till then that the blood-coloured tubercle ap- ⢠** The life of the Sheldrake, which is pretty long, feems to '* confirm the conjedure concerning its flow growth: laft winter I « had One that died eleven years old; it would have lived longer, ** but it became very mifchievous, and domineered over all the inha- «* bitants of the court-yard, except a muflc duck, llronger than itfelf, « with which it fought inceflantly: we thought to preferve the *' weaker by fliutting it up; but it died a ftiort time after, ra «ther from the languor of its confinement than from old age Nets o/M. Baillon. VOL. IX. N ' ** pears. »r. ill 1* h ;i m â â â â ' n M ^ mm k ill y ill J. 1- I i. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitall
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Keywords: ., boo, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectoiseaux, booksubjectornithology
