APPENDIX: NO. XLII. 61 
I have never been so fortunate as to see him perform, but for 
the facilitating of which he is described as being, like other birds, 
provided with an oil-gland. Presently he put his head under the 
curtain and stepped out, feeling his way, or smelling it, with his 
beak. He advanced towards the front in the dim light, his body 
rather rounded, his hind quarters reminding one of a Bear’s in 
contour, his head lower than his back, and his beak dotting about 
from spot to spot, actually touching the ground, as was perceived 
plainly enough by the tap when he was on woudl. 2 ‘and scenting also, 
as was inferred from the slight delay on each point, and from the 
little sniffe which often followed it, apparently to clear away any 
dust which might have got into the nostrils. Not unfrequeutly he 
walked about without any of this investigation, the point of the beak, 
however, being seldom raised far above the ground ; I have never 
seen him use his beak as an assistance to progression, at any time. 
Once or twice he shook himself, but not in a remarkably vigorous 
manner, as his development of cutaneous muscles might have enabled 
him to do. Several times he scratched his skin smartly with the 
claws of one foot. He was not long before he paid a visit to the 
heap. He inserted his beak into the flower-pot and ate a worm, but 
then immediately began to examine the soil in preference to adopting 
so lazy a mode of getting his breakfast, for that there were still worms 
in the pot was proved by his presently returning to it and eating 
another or two, although they might not be such healthy and well- 
seasoned ones as he procured elsewhere. I was much pleased to find 
that 1 could turn ‘the full light of the bull’s eye upon him without 
disturbing him, so that I was able to see his movements sufficiently 
distinctly. 
Standing with one foot a little in advance of the other, and holding 
his beak in a more or less slanting or again in a nearly upright 
position, he pushed it into the ground by a succession of four or five 
shoves, following one another at intervals of something less than a 
second of time, each of them accompanied by a slight sound just 
audible to me, but whether caused by the friction of the beak against 
the soil or by a sniff underneath it, | cannot say with certainty. In 
this act the whole body, head, and neck, moved together, the feet 
appearing to be the pivot on which all turned, and there was not any 
drawing back to get an impetus for each new shove. At last, with- 
drawing his beak, he was heard to swallow a worm with the usual 
snaps, or, if unsuccessful in finding one, at least to give a little sneeze 
to clear the nostrils. He then perlaps takes a step in advance, and 
applies his nose very deliberately and attentively to several parts of 
the soil; almost seeming to listen, but never approaching his ears 
to the ground or turning his head on one side. Respecting the 
pushing, he may almost bury his eyes before he reaches the worm, 
and sometimes he has to give one or two lateral jerks, to obtain 
room to turn his beak into a new direction, for he seems to be 
following his prey by scent under ground. ‘The soil is so light as to 
offer little resistance, being for the most part imperfectly decomposed 
