280 Wonders of the Bird World 



its beak, forced the head down till it touched the back ; 

 when I withdrew my hand, up flew the head, like a steel 

 spring, to its first position. I repeated the experiment 

 many times with the same result, the very eyes of the bird 

 appearing all the time rigid and unwinking, like those of a 

 creature in a fit. What wonder that it is so difficult, almost 

 impossible, to discover the bird in such an attitude ! But 

 how happened it that while repeatedly walking round the 

 bird through the rushes I had not caught sight of the 

 striped back and the broad dark-coloured sides ? I asked 

 myself this question, and stepped round to get a side view, 

 when, mirabile dictu, I could see nothing but the rush-like 

 front of the bird ! His motions on the perch, as he turned 

 slowly or quickly round, still keeping the edge of the blade- 

 like body before me, corresponded so exactly with my own 

 that I almost doubted that I had moved at all. No sooner 

 had I seen the finishing part of this marvellous instinct of 

 self-preservation (this last act making the whole complete), 

 than such a degree of delight and admiration possessed 

 me as I have never before experienced during my re- 

 searches, much as I have conversed with wild animals in 

 the wilderness, and many and perfect as are the instances of 

 adaptation I have witnessed. I could never finish admiring, 

 and thought that I never had anything so beautiful fallen in 

 my way before ; for even the sublime cloud-seeking instinct 

 of the White Egret and the typical Herons seemed less 

 admirable than this ; and for some time I continued ex- 

 perimenting, pressing down the bird's head and trying to 

 bend him by main force into some other position, but the 

 strange rigidity remained unrelaxed, the fixed attitude 

 unchanged. I also found, as I walked round him, that as 

 soon as I got to the opposite side and he could no longer 

 twist himself on his perch, he whirled his body with great 

 rapidity the other way, instantly presenting the same front 

 as before. Finally I plucked him forcibly from the rush 



