VANISHMENT MADE EASY

   I wanted to find a list and some pictures of the birds who aresaid to stick their heads into holes in the ground and get to knowmore about them and learn why on earth they did such a queer thing.


           I ultimately determinedthat it is because they cannot make themselves disappear from the world simply byplacing their hands in front of their faces and saying (silently oraloud): 


  “Where’s  [INSERT NAME]?,”


    as a small child might.


    If you don’t believeme about this, see Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD), NaturalHistory, Book 10, Ch. 1 (i.e., "they imagine, when they have thrust their head and neckinto a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed.")


      Great strategy, by theway.  Go ostrich.  Go emu.  Go lovely little sandpiper.