128 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



wonderful intelligence which prompts them to 

 keep quiet and motionless as death during the 

 critical moments when the least movement might 

 lead to discovery and destruction. 



Another of the tricks which some birds resort 

 to is that of shamming death. I once caught 

 a Landrail amongst the long grass the bird 

 refusing to leave the cover, which gradually got 

 less and less as the mowing-machine went round, 

 cutting swathe after swathe and was as much 

 surprised as startled at seeing it, to all intents 

 and purposes, die in my hand. Suspecting some 

 trick, I laid it quietly on the grass ; but not a 

 muscle moved, the eyes were closed as in death, 

 and the legs and wings seemed to have lost all 

 their power. There it lay for a few minutes, 

 until I took it in my hand again, the head droop- 

 ing just as though the bird were dead. Then I 

 actually dropped it on the grass again, and retired 

 a few paces to watch. The eye gradually opened 

 a little, and, finally, the cunning bird sprang up 

 and hurried away, as if nothing at all were the 

 matter ! I could not help admiring the wonderful 

 command the bird must have had over itself 

 what in a man we should justly term an iron nerve 

 under such trying circumstances. Verily birds 

 are gifted with more intelligence, with more 

 mental capacity, than we are ever disposed to 

 accord to them. I have also known the Wryneck 

 to feign death in just the same remarkable and 

 astonishing manner. 



