The Big Feet of Eggbert, the Screamer Bird from The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell

Eggbert’s feet were the bane of his life. There was so much of them, and they would get tangled together when he walked. Then there was the danger that he would tread on his own toes and fall down and make an exhibition of himself, as he had done on the first day. So he kept a very close watch on his feet for any signs of insubordination. He would sometimes stand for as long as ten minutes with bent head, gravely staring at his toes as they wiggled gently in the grass, spread out like the arms of a starfish. Eggbert’s whole desire, obviously, was to be disassociated from these outsize feet. He felt irritated by them. Without them, he was sure, he could gambol about the lawn with the airy grace of a dried thistle head. Occasionally, having watched his feet for some time, he would decide that he had lulled them into a sense of false security. Then, when they least suspected it, he would launch his body forward in an effort to speed across the lawn and leave these hateful extremities behind. But although he tried this trick many times, it never succeeded. The feet were always too quick for him, and as soon as he moved they would deliberately and maliciously twist themselves into a knot, and Eggbert would fall head first into the daisies.
His feet were continually letting him down, in more ways than one. Eggbert had a deep ambition to capture a butterfly. Why this was we could not find out, for Eggbert could not tell us. All we knew was that screamers were supposed to be entirely vegetarian, but whenever a butterfly hovered within six feet of Eggbert his whole being seemed to be filled with blood-lust, his eyes would take on a fanatical and most un-vegetarian gleam, and he would endeavour to stalk it. However, in order to stalk a butterfly with any hope of success one has to keep one’s eyes firmly fixed on it. This Eggbert knew, but the trouble was that as soon as he watched the butterfly with quivering concentration, his feet, left to their own devices, would start to play up, treading on each other’s toes, crossing over each other, and sometimes even trying to walk in the wrong directions. As soon as Eggbert dragged his eyes away from his quarry, his feet would start to behave, but by the time he looked back again the butterfly would have disappeared.

1. Give a word or short phrase that means the same as the following: bane, insubordination, disassociated, maliciously and blood-lust. (5)

2. Explain each of the following phrases: these hateful extremities, with quivering concentration, left to their own devices. (3)

3. What is meant by the words “he had lulled them into a false sense of security”? (1)

4. Comment on the effectiveness of the words, “ the airy grace of a dried thistle-head”? (1)

5. How does the writer convince us that Eggbert feels his feet don’t really belong to him? (2)

6. Briefly explain the phrase “make an exhibition of himself”. (1)

7. Explain the meaning of “his eyes would take on a fanatical…gleam” (1)

8. What do we learn about the writer Gerald Durrell in this piece of writing? (1)

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