BY WAY OF APPENDIX. 
219 
alighted on the ground not far from me. I walked 
on; but the action of the bird had struck me as 
unusual and strange, and before going far, I turned 
and walked back to the spot where it still continued 
sitting on the ground, quite motionless. It made 
no movement when I approached to within four 
yards of it; and after I had stood still at that 
distance for a minute or so, attentively regarding 
it, I saw it put out one wing and turn over on its 
side. I at once took it up in my hand, and foun 1 
that it was already quite dead. It was a large 
example of its species, and its size, together with a 
something of dimness in the glossy purple colour of 
the upper plumage, seemed to show that it was an 
old bird. But it was uninjured, and when I dis- 
sected it no trace of disease was discernible. I 
concluded that it was an old bird that had died 
solely from natural failure of the life-energy. 
But how wonderful, how almost incredible, that 
the healthy vigour and joy of life should have con- 
tinued in this individual bird down to within so 
short a period of the end ; that it should have been 
not only strong enough to find its food, but to rush 
and wheel about for long intervals in purely sportive 
exercises, when the brief twilight of decline and 
final extinction were so near ! It becomes credible 
— we can even believe that most of the individuals 
that cease to exist only when the vital fire has 
