204 The Naturalist in La Plata. 



partridge of the pampas (Nothura maculosa). When 

 captured, after a few violent struggles to escape, it 

 drops its head, gasps two or three times, and to all 

 appearances dies. If, when you have seen this, you 

 release your hold, the eyes open instantly, and, with 

 startling suddenness and a noise of wings, it is up 

 and away, and beyond your reach for ever. Pos- 

 sibly, while your grasp is on the bird it does actually 

 become insensible, though its recovery from that 

 condition is almost instantaneous. Birds when 

 captured do sometimes die in the hand, purely from 

 terror. The tinamou is excessively timid, and some- 

 times when birds of this species are chased — for 

 gaucho boys frequently run them down on horse- 

 back — and when they find no burrows or thickets 

 to escape into, they actually drop down dead on the 

 plain. Probably, when they feign death in their 

 captor's hand, they are in reality very near to 

 death. 



