186 
ARDEID.E. 
activity, except during the night, when it would occasionally 
wander as far as the garden walls would permit, hut why it 
never made use of its wings to pass the harrier I am unahle to 
imagine. 
For the first few days it remained in one spot, sleeping with 
the hill and the fore part of the head concealed beneath the 
angle of the wing. On the sixth day I missed it, and after some 
trouble found it sitting upon a branch about two feet from the 
ground, in the midst of a thick bush, and ever afterwards it 
showed a decided preference for like situations. In feeding 
it, I inserted the fish between the tips of the mandibles, — a very 
short distance was suflicient, — then, on my withdrawing my 
liands, the bill was pointed towards the ground, and by a series 
of jerking movements the fish was rapidly brought as far as 
the throat, when both neck and bill were pointed upwards, and 
the jerking continued until the tail of the fish disappeared ; 
then the neck was gradually retracted, and all voluntary efforts 
to swallow ceased. The lower mandible was capable of consid- 
erable dilatation of the base, so that a morsel of food four inches 
in diameter could be swallowed without much difficulty. During 
the whole process, and especially when it was much prolonged, 
saliva flowed abundantly, but nevertheless it was always neces- 
sary for me to dip the food in water before offering it. Fish 
were never swallowed otherwise than head foremost. I never 
saw them tossed in the air and caught again, in the manner 
described by some authors; but with the bill pointed towards 
the ground, they were shaken about, suffered to fall for a 
short distance, and quickly grasped again, until, by frequent 
repetition of the process, they were brought into the desired 
])osition. The grasp of the bill was exceedingly powerful. 
Once, in my haste, I clumsily inserted a finger instead of a fish, 
and thus, as the bird quickly drew back its head, the finely 
serrated edges of the upper half of the bill inflicted two deep 
cuts as clearly as if they had been made with a knife. After 
the food had been swallowed, the tongue was often rapidly 
protruded and slowly withdrawn. In stuffed specimens of the 
