This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: …and beg for food with his little mouth very widely opened. As young birds grow and rill the cavity of cupshaped nests, the mother bird, when covering them during periods of rest from her labours and at night-time, is lifted higher and higher; and it is no uncommon thing to see her sitting in the elevated position depicted in the illustration of a Blackcap on the opposite page, with three or four inquiring heads thrust from beneath her wings and puffed-out breast feathers. Chicks that have to be left in a nest whilst their parents fly a long way off in search of food are no doubt a source of great anxiety; but so are those that run about with their elders directly they are hatched. One day, whilst lying hidden in a crevice of rock by the sea, I saw a pair of old Oyster Catchers proudly walking along the strand. By-and-by they approached my place of concealment, and as their behaviour became somewhat strange I gave them particular attention. They kept on running backwards and forwards in a state of concern upon the sand and shingle just above the wetted line left by the succeeding waves of a rising tide, and I discovered that they each had a pair of mischievous baby Oyster Catchers in their charge. The youngsters seemed to want to paddle very FEMALE 1ILACKCAV SITTING ON NEST FL’LL OF YOUNO (j). 100). badly, but their parents headed them oft’ every time they approached the water and made them run about where it was quite safe. I must admit that this parental care seemed even to me to bo very much overdone, but I soon had a striking lesson to the contrary. A number of tourists landed from a boat which came ashore a hundred yards or so further down the bay, and one of the old Oyster Catchers rushed off’ to try to make them believe its nest was…