156 tURSORIID.E. 
they run off with astonishing swiftness^ manoeuvring to get 
out of sight behind stones or clods of earth ; then, kneeling 
down and stretching the body and head flat on the ground, 
they endeavour to make themselves invisible, — though all the 
time their eyes are fixed on the object which disturbs them, 
and they keep on the alert ready to rush off again if one 
continues to approach them. 
" The age of the young birds can be well made out by the 
zigzag markings with which the plumage is speckled, which 
becomes clearer each moult till the end of the second year, 
when they assume the regular adult livery. There is no 
difference at any age in the plumage of the sexes. 
'^In 1849 they did not leave till the 11th of September, 
when a chasseur brought me one slightly wounded in the 
wing. I tried to keep this bird alive ; but it died directly 
the weather became cold. It proved on dissection to be 
a female ; and from the large size of the eggs in the ovary it 
appeared as if it would soon have nested, probably in 
October or November, when doubtless they retire to a much 
warmer climate. 
" Towards the end of August 1851 two others were brought 
to me, both slightly wounded — one an adult, the other an 
immature bird. To prevent the birds this time from dying 
of cold, I placed them by day in a room where there was 
always a fire kept up. At night I put them in a box, making 
a door at the side^ lining the top and sides with cotton- wool, 
placing sand an inch deep on the bottom ; this w^as warmed 
and dried by putting a charcoal brazier inside during the 
day. I fed the bii'ds on grasshoppers till November, when 
these insects became very scarce, and, as each bird ate fifty 
daily, it was necessary to change their diet to the larvae of 
coleoptera, which, after some reluctance, they began to take. 
This food suited them better than grasshoppers, the birds 
becoming fatter, at the same time eating less. They did well 
till Januai-y, when, the adult bird pining and refusing food, I 
tried to save it by cramming ; but this was useless, as it died 
in February, and on dissection I found that death was caused 
by a very large tumour in the stomach. It proved to be a 
