i6 BIRD WATCHING 



acter altogether, but much more interesting to see 

 than they are easy to describe. The birds are now 

 paired, or in process of becoming so, and it is 

 fashionable for two of them to walk side by side, 

 and very close together, with little gingerly steps, as 

 though " keeping company." They seem very much 

 en rapport with each other — sehr einig as the 

 Germans would say — also to have a mutual sense 

 of their own and each other's importance, of the 

 seemly and becoming nature of what they are doing, 

 and (this above all) of the great value of deportment. 

 Something there is about them — now even more than 

 at other times — very odd, quaint, old-world, old- 

 fashioned. The last best describes it ; they are 

 old-fashioned birds. Were the world occupied in 

 watching them, and were they occasionally to over- 

 hear themselves being talked about, they would 

 catch that word as often as did little Paul Dombey. 

 Whilst watching a couple walking side by side 

 in this way that I have described, one of them may 

 be seen to bend stiffly forward till the beak just 

 touches the ground, the tail and after part of the 

 body being elevated in the air. The other stands 

 by, and appears both interested in and edified by 

 the performance, and when it is over both walk on 

 as before. Or a bird may be seen to act thus whilst 

 walking alone, upon which another will come running 

 from some distance towards it, as though answering 

 to a summons or to some quite irresistible form of 

 appeal. Upon coming close up to the rigid bird this 

 other one stops, and turning suddenly, but also setly 

 and rigidly, round, makes a curious little run away 

 from it with lowered head and precise formal steps, 



