170 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 
thought out a plan of campaign. Starting faster 
than ever, he ran round after the bird, and then 
suddenly turned and ran round the opposite way, 
when he met the melancholy Gallinule full face ; 
and so flustered it that it left the stack and flew at 
right angles away, giving a possible shot, which was 
taken advantage of. On another occasion one was 
seen swimming in a miserable little duck-pond 
outside a village, tenanted by tame ducks, and 
the Gallinule absolutely refused to leave the 
sheltering society of these farmyard birds. Both 
these incidents seem to point to the same sort of 
method of life: “just sit tight, don’t fly into the 
open, risk nothing in the outside world, there are 
unknown dangers”: so it may be that this bird 
will sit, and sit, all humped up in its reed jungle 
till at last it loses the power of flight altogether ; 
and then, before long, it will certainly fall a prey 
to some force or enemy which it has no power of 
resisting or escaping from. Mr. J. H. Gurney has 
also written of this bird, that just in the early 
morning or towards sunset he has seen it leave 
the shelter of these great reed-beds, but keeping 
quite close thereto, and at the least sign of danger 
running back to them. Seldom or never has he 
seen it take even a flight of a few yards. Along 
