This bird is one of the drowsiest of creatures, being less easily roused by day than any other slumberer of night. All the day long it sits sleeping upon a branch, its body crouched closely to the bough, its head buried amid the masses of soft feathers upon the head and shoulders, and its whole form as motionless as if were carved out of the branch on which it reposes.
… If pushed off the branch with a long rod, the Podargus can barely summon sufficient energy to save itself from falling to the ground, and flapping its wings languidly to the nearest bough, settles, and is almost immediately wrapped in sleep, thus practically carrying out the complaint of Dr. Watts' sluggard, "You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again."
John George Wood, 1862
The Illustrated Natural History
The Illustrated Natural History
