68 Mr. E. M. Christy, Natural History Notes. 



was placed at the height of eleven feet above the ground in 

 a hollow formed by the branching out of the bough of a large 

 elm-tree, standing beside a muddy stream in Lord Bray- 

 brooke's Park at Audley End. Thinking this a favourable 

 opportunity to observe the manner in which the young 

 would come down, I made many visits to the nest, keeping 

 a sharp look-out for the hatching of the eggs, and fre- 

 quently saw the old bird leave the nest, although on the 

 first occasion she sat very close, and only left when I 

 accidentally struck the tree with my stick, after having 

 been some minutes below it. The nest was not over the 

 water by five or six feet, and was just visible from the 

 ground. I first discovered it on the 12th instant, and 

 visiting it about seven o'clock on the evening of _the 18th, 

 I found that there were five young hatched in the nest and 

 two rotten eggs. I had no sooner got up than one young 

 one, apparently in a fright, rushed to the edge of the nest, 

 took a header, and perished at the bottom of the tree. I 

 directly went home and, returning with a pair of field- 

 glasses, I secreted myself as near to the nest as possible, 

 and watched. One old bird very soon appeared and swam 

 about just below the tree, making a chuckling noise, seem- 

 ingly as a signal, for the other bird was then seen. Both 

 continued for some time alternately to swim in the stream and 

 walk about at the foot of the tree as though they had nothing 

 particular to do. During all this while the four young left 

 had been keeping up an incessant chirping, and presently 

 I saw something fall, which I had no doubt was one of 

 them. At first the old birds did not appear to notice this ; 

 but soon one went to the place, and I could just see the 

 white of its tail above the edge of a hollow in the ground, 

 in which it seemed to be doing something. Having thus 

 watched until it began to get dark, I went up to the tree, 

 and at the bottom found the young one I had seen 

 fall, lying nearly dead ; those left in the nest had 

 stopped squealing and appeared to be so weak that 

 they were unable to hold up their heads. I therefore 

 brought one down carefully as an experiment, and set it 

 beside the water, the old birds clucking loudly at 



