180 
GKUID.E. 
During the pursuit on the previous day, I noticed that the bird 
never rose without first running several steps, and that as soon 
as it became aware of danger it never failed to utter the peculiar 
guttural cry already mentioned. It rarely circled immediately 
before alighting, but with outstretched motionless wings sailed 
gradually closer to the ground, and dropped rather suddenly. 
Then it would pause to tuck its large wings comfortably away, 
very soon afterwards beginning to walk about slowly in the 
position already described, occasionally stoj^ping to raise its 
head and look around, or to pick up something from among the 
grass. On taking wing, and generally when descending pre- 
viously to alighting, it stretched out the neck in a line vdth 
the body; but when rising in full flight, it kept the neck 
retracted and the head withdrawn to the shoulders. When 
it was high in the air, and seemed bent upon a long flight, the 
wings were flapped slowly, but at regular intervals, rather 
longer than I have observed in the Heron ; at other times the 
wings were usually kept fully expanded, and only moved 
occasionally. The flight, though apparently heavy, was never- 
theless very rapid, and, as far as I could observe, the bird 
preferred rising head to wind ; indeed, even upon the ground 
it nearly always exactly faced the quarter from which the 
wind was blowing. 
On skinning the specimen, it was evident that the contents 
of both barrels had been well directed — one wing was severely 
injured, and other wounds were numerous ; but I was surprised 
to And several shot lying loose beneath the skin of the back. 
Although the bird was evidently immature, the tendons of the 
wings and legs were exceedingly strong, and in some situations 
even partly ossifled. The stomach, which was large and very 
muscular, was filled with large black slugs and pieces of stone 
(principally quartz), some of them of considerable size, measur- 
ing about half an inch square. Most of the feathers composing 
the under wing coverts presented a very peculiar appearance, 
large patches upon them being covered with what I take to be 
the ova of some kind of parasite. The nature of the food pro- 
