i8 BIRD WATCHING 



to his hen." Or shall we not, rather, say to his Dulcinea 

 del Toboso ? for never does this strange, gaunt, solemn, 

 punctilious-looking bird, with the tall figure and the 

 strain of madness in the great glaring eyes, more re- 

 mind one — fancifully — of Cervante's creation than now. 

 Surely in that formal approach and deep reverence 

 to his mistress, before entering upon this, perhaps, his 

 first "emprise," we have the very figure and high 

 courteous action of the knight, and seem almost to 

 hear those words of his spoken on a similar occasion : 

 " Acorredme, sefiora mia, en esta primera afrenta que 

 a este vuestro avasallado pecho se le ofrece ; no me 

 desfallezca en este primera trance vuestro favor y 

 amparo." ("Sustain me, lady mine, in this first 

 insult offered to your captive knight. Fail me not 

 with your favour and countenance in this my first 

 emprise.") 



In the above case it was, presumably, the female 

 bird who assumed the curious rigid attitude, with the 

 tail raised and head stooped forward to the ground. 

 The attitude, however, assumed by the male, which I 

 have described as a bow or obeisance — and, indeed, 

 it has this appearance — was much of the same nature, 

 if it was not precisely the same, and as far as I have 

 been able to observe, none of the many and very 

 singular attitudes and posturings in which these birds 

 indulge are peculiar to either sex. At any rate, that 

 one which would seem par excellence to appertain to 

 courtship or matrimony, and which is often (as it 

 was in the instance I am about to give) immediately 

 followed by the actual pairing of the birds, is common 

 to both the male and the female. The following will 

 show this : — " A bird which has for some time been 



