314 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



it, I saw the one white egg lying in it, which 

 showed me that the bird was not there. Shortly 

 afterwards, I heard both of them near the nest, and 

 thought they would soon appear. As they did not, 

 however, but seemed to keep in a spot which, 

 though only a few paces oiF, was yet invisible from 

 where I sat, I came down and climbed a willow-tree, 

 commanding a view of it. I then saw the female 

 (as I think) floating, or, rather, sitting, on the water, 

 and, after a while, the male came up, and one of the 

 chicks, going to him from off her back, was fed in 

 the usual way. The female then — owing, perhaps, 

 to the noise which I could not help making, for I 

 was most uncomfortably situated, and the willow, 

 though thin, was full of dead branches which kept 

 snapping — swam up the stream. The male, how- 

 ever, remains, and, all at once, greatly to my 

 surprise and interest, jumps up upon what I now 

 see to be another nest, or nest-like structure, 

 though I have not noticed it there before. Hardly 

 is he on, when he jumps off again, and this he 

 does two or three times more, at short intervals, in 

 a restless, nervous sort of way. Having jumped 

 down for the last time, he swims a little out, and 

 appears, to my alarmed imagination, to keep 

 glancing up into the tree, where 1 now, however, 

 though it is very difficult to do so, keep perfectly 

 still. At length, losing his suspicions, he floats 

 again on the water, whilst the chick swims out 

 from him, and then climbs again on his back. 

 Then comes an interchange of ideas, or, at any 

 rate, feelings, between him and his mate. He 

 gives a little " chook-a-chook-a-chook-a," and this 



