Habits of the Hoatzin. 333 



an opening cut in the floating Bundoorie pimpler, at high 

 water, or to the cutting and pulling of the branches by some 

 one who has waded through the soft mud, often up to the 

 thighs, at low water, then the young birds, unless they be 

 only quite recently hatched, crawl out of the nests on all 

 fours, and rapidly try to hide in the thicker bush behind. 



One curious feature noticed with a nestling which had 

 been upset into the river was its power of rapid swimming 

 and diving when pursued. As soon as the hand was placed 

 close to it, it rapidly dived into the dark water, in which it 

 was impossible to see it, and would rise at distances of more 

 than a yard away. Owing to this power the little creature 

 managed to evade all my attempts to seize it, taking refuge 

 eventually far under the bushy growth, where it was impos- 

 sible to pursue it. The prolonged immersion which a 

 nestling will thus instinctively and voluntarily undergo, or 

 which an adult bird will bear in an attempt to drown it, 

 seems to me to be quite remarkable. 



The nestlings, when resting on the bare sticks of the nest, 

 are observed to rest the weight of the body, as in the adult 

 birds, on the bare and thickened integument of the carina 

 sterni, the toes being spread out and the wings generally 

 drawn up to the sides. 



I am unable to state from observation the method of feed- 

 ing of the nestlings. In very young specimens when the crops 

 were examined the food was found to consist of a cen- 

 tral portion of closely packed pieces of young and thin leaves, 

 apparently both of the courida and the Bundoorie pimpler, 

 surrounded by a finer more pulpy mass, which was thus in 

 contact with the walls of the organ, and which had evidently, 

 from its position, been more acted upon than the central 

 portion. The enclosed pieces of leaves were sometimes 

 nearly three quarters of an inch in length, quite ragged in 

 outline and much folded, so much so as to give the impres- 

 sion of a finely comminuted mass until they were carefully 

 unrolled. In nestlings of much larger size the food-mass of 

 the crop was considerably more comminuted, but it still con- 

 tained distinctly recognizable portions of leaves, and often 



