3414 Birds. 



the back of it, where its nearly erect feathers are pressed against the 

 feathers of the body, and turned aside and forwards. The beak how- 

 ever is never literally in the horizontal plane, it slopes downwards 

 from the first, but keeps getting lower and lower, until the end of it 

 actually rests upon the straw or upon the ground, but so that there is 

 still a considerable slope in it. In the mean time the eye is wide open, 

 the eyelids leaving exposed a complete circle. The margins of the 

 eyelids are not warty but entire, and they are not expanded to form 

 projecting eaves, as they are in owls. In fact, these little eyes afford 

 the greatest possible contrast to the large ones of those equally noc- 

 turnal birds, and they differ from them as from all other birds' eyes, 

 as Professor Owen discovered, in the absence of the characteristic in- 

 ternal structure called the marsupium. They are apparently not af- 

 fected by the light, for there is none of the winking and blinking which 

 is so peculiar to the expressive eyes of owls, though its cause may be 

 questioned. I have only once or twice observed a single pass of the 

 nictitating membrane, and that was by no means rapidly conducted, 

 the colour of this membrane appeared to me to be bluish white. Some- 

 times the eyes gradually close from sleepiness, the lower eyelid ad- 

 vancing nearly over the whole eye. In the sitting position which I 

 have been describing, the bird will remain for a long time, and he is 

 often seen in it when the box is opened. 



Sometimes again he is found with his legs perpendicularly under 

 him, in this respect standing as the storks and some other birds often 

 do. The feathers of the rounded body do not reach down below the 

 end of the fleshy part of the leg, the head is very little advanced from 

 the body, and the beak rests nearly perpendicularly, with its point 

 upon the ground, so that the figure of the bird is something that of a 

 globe upon a tripod. From this position he often seems inclined to 

 bend his legs under him, so as to attain his former one, but on other 

 occasions he remains standing for a long time motionless, and then an 

 opportunity is afforded of ascertaining the rate of breathing, for there 

 is a slight movement observable in the feathers of the under side of the 

 body; several times I have counted about twenty-three respirations in 

 a minute. Here also, as before, the beak seems for the most part to 

 drop gradually into its place, and not to be deliberately put into it to 

 form a support. 



From this figure it is very curious to see the sudden change which 

 is produced when the bird is irritated. He then lengthens himself 

 out, straightening his back and his neck, and standing nearly upright. 

 There is generally a slight bend forward of the lower part of the neck, 



