THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE FOREST 1 53 



or no she should fly away and disclose the presence 

 of her two egg's. Was there any other deception by 

 which she could mimic still further her surroundings ? 

 Apparently there was one, to be used only as a last 

 resource. She kept perfectly still, her body not even 

 swaying as she breathed, and then suddenly vibrated 

 her throat very quickly and silently for perhaps a 

 minute, after which she left off as unexpectedly as she 

 had begun, and sat still as a statue again. A glance at 

 the illustration of this bird will show on its throat two 

 markings, not very distinct, but plainly visible on the 

 bird itself, which resembled in colour and in form two 

 little bits of dried bracken. I think the bird vibrated 

 the portion of her throat on which these specially- 

 marked feathers grew, so that they might resemble the 

 tips of the dried fronds which are sometimes to be seen 

 hanging from the main stem of a fern by a thread of 

 wool or hair, and are in these cases vibrated by any 

 light breath of wind. When we sent the bird off her 

 eggs, she flew into a wood which was near at hand and 

 settled on one of the boughs of a tree, not following the 

 line of the bough, and not across it, but in a position 

 between the two. On returning to the eggs, the bird 

 alighted on the ground a foot or so off, and remained 

 where she was for about a couple of minutes, keeping 

 her eyes wide open all the time, she then waddled on to 

 the eggs and immediately closed her eyes to the same 

 extent as before, when she resumed her usual pose of 

 absolute stillness. From this it seems evident that 

 these birds do not close the eyes only on the approach 

 of danger, but as a general habit, for if the bird in 

 question had suspected danger she would not have 

 'returned to the nest. 



