312 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



one of the parents, even in the nest — I doubt, 

 indeed, if I have ever seen them there alone. 



The dabchick, therefore, is in the habit, not only 

 of swimming with all its family on its back, and 

 quite invisible, but of diving with them thus, too, 

 and so accustomed are the chicks to be carried, or to 

 sit, in this way, that during the early days of their 

 life they may almost be said to lead a parasitical 

 existence. Though they mount upon either parent, 

 yet it has seemed to me that they prefer one to the 

 other, and I think it more likely, on the whole, that 

 the one who sits habitually with them, thus perched, 

 in the nest, is the mother rather than the father, 

 though, if so, it is the latter who does most of the 

 feeding. It has appeared to me, too, though it 

 may be mere fancy, that the chicks not only prefer 

 the mother's back, but that they find more difficulty 

 in getting upon the male's. Thus, upon the last 

 occasion mentioned, when two out of the three left 

 the mother, to go to the father, the first one to get 

 up on him only succeeded in doing so after a great 

 deal of exertion, whilst the last was struggling for 

 such a very long time that I began to think he 

 never would succeed, and when, at last, he did, he 

 lay, for a little, in full view, as though exhausted. 

 It is natural, of course, that the chicks should leave 

 either parent, to be fed by the other, but I remember, 

 once, when they happened to be sitting on the male's 

 back, in the nest — which was unusual — at one soft 

 sound from the mother, they all flung themselves 

 off it, into the nest, and scrambled up with equal 

 haste on to hers, as soon as she had taken her place 

 there, which she did directly. Possibly they 



