456 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The second figure, showing the bird with its beak resting on 

 the ground, does not do full justice to the efforts of the bird to 

 be peculiar. When free to do so, it stretched out its neck at 

 full length, resting the tip of its beak on the ground and looking 

 for all the world like a half-fallen and rotting stump of a bush. 

 But on this occasion it was too near the glass to be able fully 

 to extend its neck, and the waning light compelled us to be 

 satisfied with that position. 



I may add that both this bird and the Baillon's Crake reported 

 last month (p. 427) have been purchased by Mr. Henry Willett, 

 of Brighton, and presented by him to the Booth Museum, in which 

 the collection of birds is being gradually extended, care being 

 taken to case all additions in a manner worthy of the original 

 collection, and yet to distinguish them from the cases prepared 

 under Mr. Booth's personal direction. 



[The inference to be drawn from these remarks is that the curious 

 attitudes adopted by this bird, on finding itself observed, are assumed in 

 the exercise of what may be termed the instinct of self-preservation, and in 

 a state of nature must tend materially to favour its concealment. Whether 

 it be standing in or near a reed-bed, erect, with neck preternaturally elongated 

 and beak pointed upwards (as in fig. 1), or crouching (as in fig. 2) against a 

 river-side tree-stump, the attitude is calculated to deceive the eyes of all but 

 the keenest observers, especially since the colour of the bird's plumage 

 harmonizes in a remarkable degree with that of the natural surroundings. 



A similar habit has been observed and described by Mr. W. H. Hudson 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, p. 629) in the case of a South American Little Heron, 

 Ardettainvolucris (Vieillot), which frequents the borders of the La Plata, and 

 is occasionally found in the reed-beds scattered over the pampas. Without 

 the aid of dogs it was found impossible to secure any specimens of it, 

 even after marking the exact spot where one had alighted. " This," says 

 Mr. Hudson (I. c.\ " I attributed to the slender figure it makes, and to the 

 colour of the plumage so closely resembling that of the withering yellow 

 and spotted reeds always to be found amongst the green ones ; but I did 

 not know for many years that the bird possesses a marvellous instinct that 

 makes its peculiar conformation and imitative colour far more advantageous 

 than they could be of themselves." He then describes, in a very graphic 

 manner, the attitude assumed by one of these birds, which he had marked 

 down, but which for a quarter of an hour he was quite unable to see, " for 

 he was perched, the body erect and the point of the tail touching the reed 

 grasped by its feet ; the long, tapering, slender neck was held stiff, straight, 

 and vertical ; and the head and beak, instead of being carried obliquely, 



