9770 Birds. 



dropped behind a friendly hillock, and, making a wide sweep inland, 

 returned to the top of the hill, as nearly as possible above the desired 

 spot. Reckoning that the bird would be far out of shot from the 

 nearest concealment, we agreed that our only chance was to creep 

 along the ground as far as possible, and then run in at once. This we 

 did, and as the bird got up we ventured a very long shot with B B as it 

 flew towards the loch. On receiving the shot it sailed steadily for a 

 few seconds, and then, dropping upon its feet in shallow water, ran for 

 the land so rapidly that we could scarcely overtake it, and even then 

 the furious thrusts which it delivered with its bill rendered its despatch 

 a matter of no small difficulty. It was only then that we became aware 

 that we had both fired, the two shots having occurred so precisely at 

 the same moment that only one report was perceptible. In consequence 

 of the great size of the bird neither of us could carry it alone without 

 injuring it as a specimen ; therefore we bound it lengthwise with our 

 handkerchiefs to the longest gun, andjthus brought it in triumph 

 home. 



During the pursuit on the previous day I noticed that the bird never 

 rose without first running several steps, and that as soon as it became 

 aware of danger it never failed to utter the peculiar guttural cry already 

 mentioned. It rarely circled immediately before alighting, but, with 

 outstretched motionless wings, sailed gradually closer to the ground 

 and dropped rather suddenly. Then it would pause to tuck its large 

 wings comfortably away, very soon afterwards beginning to walk about 

 slowly in the position already described, occasionally stopping to raise 

 its head and look around, or to pick up something from among the 

 grass. On taking wing, and generally when descending previously to 

 alighting, it stretched out the neck in a line with the body ; but when 

 rising in full flight it kept the neck retracted and the head withdrawn 

 to the shoulders. When it was high in the air, and seemed bent upon 

 a long flight, the wings were flapped slowly, but at regular intervals, 

 rather longer than I have observed with the heron ; at other times the 

 wings were usually kept fully expanded, and only moved occasionally. 

 The flight, though apparently heavy, was nevertheless very rapid, and, 

 as far as I could observe, the bird preferred rising head to wind; 

 indeed, even upon the ground, it nearly always exactly faced the quarter 

 from which the wind was blowing. 



On skinning the specimen, it was evident that the contents of both 

 of our barrels had been well directed ; one wing was broken, and other 

 wounds were numerous ; but I was surprised to find several shot lying 

 loose beneath the skin of the back. Although the bird was evidently 



