20 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



muscles made rigid, and stand erect, his back in a 

 horizontal position, the head hanging down, the little 

 naked wings held up over the back. In that posi- 

 tion he looked an ugly, lumpish negro mannikin, 

 standing on thinnest dwarf legs, his back bent, and 

 elbows stuck up above the hollow flat back. 



Once up on his small stiffened legs he would move 

 backwards, firmly grasping the hairs and hair -like 

 fibres of the nest-lining, and never swerving, until the 

 rim of the cup-like structure was reached ; and then 

 standing, with feet sometimes below and in some 

 cases on the rim, he would jerk his body, throwing 

 the egg off or causing it to roll off. After that he 

 would fall back into the nest and lie quite exhausted 

 for some time, his jelly-like body rising and falling 

 with his breathing. 



These changes in the bird strongly reminded me 

 of a person with an epileptic fit, as I had been accus- 

 tomed to see it on the pampas, where, among the 

 gauchos, epilepsy is one of the commonest maladies; 

 the sudden rigidity of muscle in some weak, sickly, 

 flabby-looking person, the powerful grip of the hand, 

 the strength in struggling, exceeding that of a man 

 in perfect health, and finally, when this state is over, 

 the weakness of complete exhaustion. 



I witnessed several struggles with the egg, but at 

 last, in spite of my watchfulness, I did not see it 

 ejected. On returning after a very short absence, I 

 found the egg had been thrown out and had rolled 



