190 BIRBS AND MAN 



steps aside and invites her to enter, rocking him- 

 self again, and anon bending his head down and 

 looking into the cavity, then drawing back again ; 

 and at last, after so much persuasion on his part, 

 she lowers her head, creeps quietly down and 

 disappears within. Left alone, the drake stations 

 himself at the burrow's mouth, with head raised 

 hke a sentinel on duty ; but after five or ten 

 minutes he slowly walks back to the flock, and 

 settles down for a quiet nap among his fellows. 

 They are all married couples ; and every drake 

 among them, when in some mysterious way he 

 knows the time has come for the egg to be laid, 

 has , to go through the same long ceremonious 

 performance, with variations according to his 

 partner's individual disposition. 



It is amusing to see at intervals a pair march 

 off from the flock ; and one wonders whether 

 the others, whose turn wiU come by and by, 

 pass any remarks ; but the dumb conversation 

 at the burrow's mouth is always most dehghtful 

 to witness. Sometimes the lady bird exhibits 

 an extreme reluctance, and one can imagine her 

 saying, " I have come thus far just to please you, 

 but you'll never persuade me to go down into 



