2IO ALLEN S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



remained there until I came up. Four days later some of 

 the eggs were hatched. The birds slipped off the nest on my 

 approach, but remained among the rushes close by. I waited 

 a few minutes and then plainly heard the cheeping of a young 

 bird, so I drove away the parent, and immediately afterwards 

 the young ones were floating a little away from the shore. The 

 other parent bird had another young one further along the bank, 

 so I ran towards it, but the young one scrambled under the wing 

 of its parent, who dived away with it. The little one, however, 

 came to the surface about ten yards from the shore. The 

 young bird seemed able to dive unassisted about two yards. 

 Old and young use their legs like a frog, horizontally, striking 

 both at once, and bringing their feet together at the end of the 

 stroke. I have seen the old ones diving in clear water some 

 distance, but they did not use their wings. I spent the fol- 

 lowing day watching the Dabchicks through a telescope. One 

 old bird was sitting on the nest whilst the other dived for food, 

 which she brought at intervals of about two minutes. When 

 she approached the nest the young birds put their heads out 

 from under the parent's wing, and took the food the other parent 

 brought. The moment her provision was disposed of, she was 

 off for more, always diving from place to place. The morsel, 

 when found, required a good deal of shaking before it was fit 

 to be given to the young birds, and when prepared, the parent 

 dived with it in her beak, appearing again at the edge of the 

 nest. Whilst I w^as watching her the bird on the nest caught 

 sight of me, carefully covered the eggs that were still un- 

 hatched, and slipped into the water. On going up to the nest 

 I found two of the young birds amongst the rushes on the 

 margin of the pond. I retired, and after watching a few 

 minutes, saw the old bird suddenly appear at the side of the 

 nest, after diving several times underneath it and swimming 

 once or twice round it. After fully two minutes of this 

 manoeuvring it landed on the nest and proceeded most care- 

 fully to remove the covering from the eggs and arrange it 

 round the sides of the nest ; then sitting upright for a moment 

 and shaking out her feathers, she settled her breast upon the 

 eggs. The other parent then came swimming up, and by its 

 puffy appearance I think it had the youngsters under its wings. 

 Seeing that all was going on well it probably deposited them 



