204 The Naturalist in La Plata. 
partridge of the pampas (Nothura maculosa). When 
captured, after a few violent struggles to escape, it 
drops its head, gasps two or three times, and to all 
appearances dies. If, when you have seen this, you 
release your hold, the eyes open instantly, and, with 
startling suddenness and a noise of wings, it 1s up 
and away, and beyond your reach for ever. Pos- 
sibly, while your grasp is on the bird it does actually 
become insensible, though its recovery from that 
condition is almost instantaneous. Birds when 
captured do sometimes die in the hand, purely from 
terror. The tinamou is excessively timid, and some- 
times when birds of this species are chased—for 
gaucho boys frequently run them down on horse- 
back—and when they find no burrows or thickets 
to escape into, they actually drop down dead on the 
plain. Probably, when they feign death in their 
captor’s hand, they are in reality very near to 
death. 
