286 
NESTS AND EGGS OF 
The duty of hatching falls not exclusively to either sex, hut is shared 
by both. The time required to bring out the young is, under the most con- 
stant sitting, about twenty-two days. While occupied with family-matters 
the birds are seldom visited by strangers, and are allowed to rule in their 
own chosen realm with undisputed sway. Only the hardened collector has 
courage to enter their disgusting abodes, and rifle them of their treasures, 
a business not difficult of accomplishment, for the birds instantly vacate, 
and become silent watchers of the pillage. These birds do not seem to 
possess a particle of spirit, and are as cowardly as they are big. When 
captured they offer no active resistance, but very effectually warn off their 
aggressor, by disgorging the half-digested contents of their crop. When 
being killed they are perfectly passive and apathetic. Dr. Coues affirms 
that they will often simulate death when captured. On one occasion, an 
individual being shot, was picked up for dead. While being borne to his 
tent it was perfectly limp. Reaching his quarters, he carelessly threw it 
upon the ground, and went to work at something else. After a brief 
spell he looked around and beheld, to his surprise, that the bird had 
changed its position, and was furtively glaring around. On going to it, 
its eyes immediately closed, its body became relaxed, and it lay completely 
motionless, and apparently dead. After compressing its chest for several 
minutes, until he fancied life to be extinct, he dropped the bird, and 
repaired to supper. On returning, the bird had disappeared, it evidently 
having scrambled into the bushes as soon as his back was turned. This 
strategem is not new, and has been frequently observed by us, although 
unrecorded. 
What they lack in courage they more than make up in the attention 
which they bestow upon their offspring. Like their parents, the latter 
are gluttonous feeders, and must be nourished at frequent intervals during 
the entire day. Their diet at first is the half-changed matter which is 
forced by the parents in their mouths. When they have been blessed 
with the use of their eyes, which occurs during the second week of their 
life, they are able to masticate small bits of meat that are brought to 
