252 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



effected its escape on the third day. During the 

 period that it remained in captivity, it was inces- 

 santly occupied in scratching up the sand into 

 heaps, and the rapidity with which it threw the 

 sand from one end of the box to the other was 

 quite surprising for so young and small a bird. At 

 night it was so restless, that sleep was impossible, 

 in consequence of the noise it made in its endea- 

 vours to effect its escape. In scratching it only 

 used one foot, and having grasped a handful, as it 

 were, the sand was thrown behind it with but little 

 apparent exertion, and without shifting its stand- 

 ing position on the other leg. 



Mr. Gilbert continued to receive the eggs of 

 this bird without an opportunity of seeing them 

 taken out from the mound. At length the oppor- 

 tunity arrived, and he saw them taken from a 

 depth of six feet in one of the largest mounds he 

 had seen. In this instance the holes ran in an 

 oblique direction downwards from the centre to- 

 wards the outer slope of the hillock, so that 

 although the eggs were six feet deep from the 

 summit, they were only two or three feet from 

 the side. The birds are said to lay but a single 

 egg in each hole, and after the egg is deposited, 



