"DEAREST CHUCK" 309 



under each. It struck me, several times, that there 

 was a sort of natural cavity, or hollow, in the old 

 bird's back, under each wing, with a corresponding 

 arch in the wing itself, making, as it were, a little 

 tent or domed chamber, for the chicks to sit in. Of 

 this, however, I cannot be quite sure, but it is such a 

 confirmed habit of the chicks to sit on the mother's 

 back, beneath her wings, that there would be nothing, 

 I think, very surprising in it. Never, one may almost 

 say — but, at any rate, " hardly ever '* — do the chicks 

 sit beside the mother, in the nest in which they were 

 born (the limitation, as it will be seen later on, is a 

 necessary one). It is as proper to them to sit on 

 the mother as it is to her to sit on the nest. 



When off duty — that is to say, when not feeding 

 the chicks — the male would sometimes make pretty 

 lengthy excursions up the stream, as would the 

 mother, too, when not sitting — up stream, I say, 

 because they never seemed to go far down it. 

 More often, however, he would stay about, in the 

 neighbourhood of the nest, and then the sitting 

 bird would sometimes call him up to it, by uttering 

 a very soft and low note. He would then appear, 

 stealing amongst the reeds with a look of gentle 

 inquiry, and, on gaining the nest, both birds to- 

 gether would make a curious little soft clucking, or 

 rather chucking, noise, expressive of love and con- 

 tent. ** Dearest chuck ! " they always seemed to me 

 to say, and whether they did or not, that, I am 

 sure, is what they meant. Coming, every day, to my 

 little watch-tower, and sitting there, sometimes, for 

 hours together, I thought, at the end of a week, 

 that I had seen everything in connection with these 



