OPISTHOCOMLS. 63 



■waded through the soft mud, often up to the thighs^ at low -water, 

 then the young birds, unless they be only quite recently hatched, 

 crawl out of the nests on all fours, and rapidly try to hide in the 

 thicker bush behind. 



" One curious feature noticed with a nestling which had been 

 upset into the river was its power of rapid swimming and diving 

 when pursued. As soon as the hand was placed close to it, 

 it rapidly dived into the dark Avater. in which it Avas impossible 

 to see it, and would rise at distances of more than a yard aAvay. 

 Owing to this power the little creature managed to evade all my 

 attempts to seize it, taking refuge eventually far under the bushy 

 growth, where it was impossible to pursue it. The prolonged 

 immersion which a nestling will thus instinctively and voluntarily' 

 undergo, or which an adult bird will Ijear in an attempt to drown 

 it, seems to me to be quite remarkable. 



" The nestlings, when resting on the bare sticks of the nest, are 

 observed to rest the weight of the body, as in the adult birds, on 

 the bare and thickened integument of the carina sterni, the toes 

 being spread out and the wings generally drawn up to the sides. 



'' I am unable to state from observation the method of feeding 

 of the nestlings. In very many specimens^ when the crops were 

 examined the food was found to consist of a central portion 

 of closely packed pieces of young and thin leaves, apparently 

 both of the courida and the Bundoorie pimpler, surrounded bv a 

 finer more pulpy mass, which was thus in contact with the walls 

 of the organ, and which had evidently, from its position, been 

 more acted upon than the central portion. The enclosed pieces 

 of leaves were sometimes nearly three-quarters of an inch in 

 length, qnite ragged in outline and much folded — so much so as 

 to give the impression of a finely comminuted mass until they 

 were carefully unrolled. In nestlings of much larger size the 

 food-mass of the crop was considerably more connninuted. but it 

 still contained distinctly recognizable portions of leaves, and often 

 these were from half to thiee-quarters of an inch in length. 



'• From the nature of the food contents, I was led to believe 

 that the time of day at which the young birds wore procured 

 made a considerable difference as to the state of the food in the 

 crop. The feeding-time of the adult birds is evidently the earlv 

 and late parts of the day, at which time their crops arc found to 

 contain, and especially at their anterior part. <]uantities of larf^e 



