86 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



country hen under any circumstance make a sound which could be likened 

 to a " hiss." Farther on we find the following sentence : — " The so-called 

 feigning of death seems to me to have no relation to mimicry, but to an 

 exaggeration of that stillness which so many animals adopt to avoid observa- 

 tion." I think, notwithstanding that, in some instances at least, the ruse is 

 carried so far as to justify its being called a feigning (or mimicry) of death 

 or sleep; otherwise, in the case of the Landrail, for instance, why should the 

 bird close its eyes when engaged in this piece of deception ? As to reptiles 

 and batrachians feigning death, one of the latter {Bombinator igneus) almost 

 goes farther than this. Its aim seems to be to simulate the unattractive 

 appearauce of a dead Toad or Frog which has been shrivelled and dried up 

 by the heat of the sun's rays. I have seen and handled one in this state. 

 It had just been taken from a roadside pond in Normandy, and at once 

 went through this singular performance. Flattening and depressing its 

 body in a wonderful manner, at the same time closing the eyes and throwing 

 up the head and all four limbs into the air, it thus formed its whole body 

 into a cup-like shape, of which the middle of the back was the deepest part. 

 —G. T. Rope. 



