240 Pictures of Bird Life 



away. However, the adult Spoonbills came so much more 

 readily than ever before that this was given up as unnecessary, 

 and many exposures were made from a distance of only a])out 

 fi^'e yards. 



Here, sitting in the water and covered over M'ith reeds 

 for several hours, tlie imusual treat was enjoyed of watching 

 botli the parent S^Doonbills accompanied by their lialf-grown 

 young ones. As soon as tlie old birds had settled, after much 

 flapping of great white wings, the young birds would tease 

 tlicm for food, uttering a whining, chipping noise, luitil the 

 parent would open its cin-ious beak, and allow the young birds 

 to insert tlieir beaks as far as the crop and feed like young 

 pigeons. This I watched repeatedly. 



Another Aery noticeable fact was tliat tlie orange mark on 

 tlie throat, described simply in the Miimial of BritisJi Birds 

 as '• gular region orange,"' gave them exactly the appearance 

 of having had their throats cut ; for the colour is just tliat 

 of dried blood, and the shape and position resemble a gash 

 with a knife across the throat. 



After lea\'ing them, the trap was set at a Purple Heron's 

 nest not far off. which held four eggs. But the water was 

 deep, and the difficulty in hiding the camera very great. 

 After wasting half a day. we failed to score any success : and. 

 to make it worse, my large sheath-knife fell out into fixe feet 

 of water, and I failed to recover it. That made the second 

 knife lost in the depths of this " meer." A pair of spectacles 

 was also dropped, but these I fished up again : and a box 

 full of exposed plates also fell overboard — these, of course. 



