XI INSTINCT AND REASON 343 
But the system has not been brought to perfection, for 
a number of eggs are dropped anywhere about the 
country. It is believed that Ostriches, too, make a 
nest that is common to several hen birds.'_ Certainly 
the cock bird sits on the eggs and tends the young, 
and this is also true of the Emeu and the Cassowary. 
The New Zealand Apteryx, however, lays only one egg 
and sits upon it herself? 
The Death-feigning Instinct. 
The death-feigning or wound-feigning instinct is 
very well developed in some birds. The Canadian 
Ruffed Grouse rises with a loud whirr, then tumbles in 
front of the pursuing dog, who never thinks of the 
young and goes after the mother whom he imagines 
wounded. If the Willow Ptarmigan be approached 
she crouches to the ground among her brood, and if 
she sees that she cannot escape notice, she rolls and 
tumbles along as though mortally injured? The 
Spotted Tinnamou, or common Partridge of the 
Pampas, when captured, after a few violent struggles 
to escape, drops his head, gasps two or three times, and 
to all appearance dies.t| The Corncrake is very good 
at the art. He has sometimes been put in a sports- 
man’s pocket, apparently quite dead, and when his 
! See Darwin’s Journal of Researches, chap. v. 
2 See a paper by Mr. P. L. Sclater, F.R.S., in the Proceedings 
of the Zoological Society, June 9th, 1863. 
3 See an article by Mr. John Worth in the Wineleenth Century, 
April 1893. 
4 See Hudson’s Maturalist tu La Plata, p. 204. 
