PEEWITS AND OSTRICHES 177 



stands by, often fluttering and clicking her wings, 

 and helps by picking up the sand, with her beak, 

 and dropping it, irregularly, near the edge of the 

 growing depression." (Compare the actions, as 

 I have noted them, of both the male and female 

 peewit.) 



** The Little Embankment Round the Nest. — The 

 sitting bird, whilst on the nest, sometimes pecks 

 the sand up, with its beak, nearly as far from the 

 nest as it can reach, and drops it around the body. 

 A little embankment is thus, gradually, formed. . . . 

 The formation ... is aided by a peculiar habit of 

 the birds. When the bird on the nest is much excited 

 (as by the approach of other birds, or people) it 

 snaps up the sand, spasmodically, without rising 

 from the nest, and without lifting its head more 

 than a few inches from the ground. The bank is 

 raised by such sand as falls inward. The original 

 nest is, merely, a shallow depression." 



Remarks follow on the use of the bank, which 

 has become a part — and an important part — of the 

 nest. We, however, are concerned with the origin 

 both of it and the depression. It seems clear, from 

 the account, that the former is made, in part at 

 least, without the bird having the intention of doing 

 so ; whilst, to make the latter, the cock assumes the 

 attitude of sexual frenzy (described in the same 

 paper, and often witnessed by myself), an attitude 

 which does not seem necessary for mere scratching, 

 nor, indeed, adapted for it. Why should a bird, 

 possessing such tremendous power in its legs — 

 moving them so freely, and accustomed to kick and 

 stamp with them — have to sink upon its breast in 

 order to scratch a shallow depression ^ Surely, 



