170 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



thought out a plan of campaign. Starting faster 

 than ever, he ran round after the bird, and then 

 suddenly turned and ran round the opposite way, 

 when he met the melancholy Gallinule full face ; 

 and so flustered it that it left the stack and flew at 

 right angles away, giving a possible shot, which was 

 taken advantage of. On another occasion one was 

 seen swimming in a miserable little duck-pond 

 outside a village, tenanted by tame ducks, and 

 the Gallinule absolutely refused to leave the 

 sheltering society of these farmyard birds. Both 

 these incidents seem to point to the same sort of 

 method of life : "just sit tight, don't fly into the 

 open, risk nothing in the outside world, there are 

 unknown dangers " : so it may be that this bird 

 will sit, and sit, all humped up in its reed jungle 

 till at last it loses the power of flight altogether ; 

 and then, before long, it will certainly fall a prey 

 to some force or enemy which it has no power of 

 resisting or escaping from. Mr. J. H. Gurney has 

 also written of this bird, that just in the early 

 morning or towards sunset he has seen it leave 

 the shelter of these great reed-beds, but keeping 

 quite close thereto, and at the least sign of danger 

 running back to them. Seldom or never has he 

 seen it take even a flight of a few yards. Along 



