STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SHELDRAKE 197 



she lowers her head, creeps quietly down and dis- 

 appears within. Left alone, the drake stations 

 himself at the burrow's mouth, with head raised 

 like a sentinel on duty ; but after five or ten 

 minutes he slowly walks back to the flock, and 

 settles down for a quiet nap among his fellows. 

 They are all married couples ; and every drake 

 among them, when in some mysterious way he knows 

 the time has come for the egg to be laid, has to 

 go through the same long ceremonious performance, 

 with variations according to his partner's individual 

 disposition. 



It is amusing to see at intervals a pair march off 

 from the flock ; and one wonders whether the 

 others, whose turn will come by and by, pass any 

 remarks ; but the dumb conversation at the 

 burrow's mouth is always most delightful to wit- 

 ness. Sometimes the lady bird exhibits an extreme 

 reluctance, and one can imagine her saying, " I have 

 come thus far just to please you, but you'll never 

 persuade me to go down into that horrid dark hole. 

 If I must lay an egg, I'll just drop it out here on 

 the grass and let it take its chance." 



It is rather hard on the drake ; but he never 

 loses his temper, never boxes her ears with his 

 carmine red beak, or thrashes her with his shining 



