'U2 Pictures of Bird Life 



the eggs and doMii appeared to be Pintails' ; but Avitlioiit 

 seeing the birds we felt we liad no proof. I^uckily a 

 few steps farther I put a duck off her nest of twelve 

 eggs, which appeared to be a Pintail, tliougli I coidd not 

 be quite certain she was not a Shoveller : and close at hand 

 was yet another nest, apparently deserted, with a broken 

 egg, three nests, all close together, M'itli the same type 

 of egg and the same down. l^ut. to make quite certain, 



J , who had waded a deep creek on ahead, put off another 



duck from a nest, an immistakable Pintail, wliicli was 

 joined by a I'intail drake, wliich had been seen about ; 

 and tlie two went off together. As all the eggs were alike, 

 ^\^e now felt quite satisfied that they were really Pintails, 

 and were rather pleased with our luck. 



The worst of it was tliat I now wanted badly the 

 whole-plate camera, which our boatman liad carried, while 

 1 liad the tele-photo lens and another camera. The said 

 boatman liad left us in tlie lurcli, and was calmly lying 

 down a mile away, on the other side of a deep creek, 

 Avhicli liad baulked him. Instead of a whole-plate photo- 

 graph, whicli was wanted to do justice to a nest like a 

 Pintail's, I had to make the best of a quarter-plate, by 

 substituting a short-focus lens I had with me for the 

 tele-photo lens in the bird-camera. I was rather sore over 

 this, and took care to let our man know how he had hindered 

 us : but he was afterwards so willing", and alwavs so rcadv 

 to help and obliging, that I easily forga^'e him. 



Our return home, against a })itterly strong head-wind. 



