320 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



though my notes do not make it clear if it continued 

 to lie there or not. I think it did not, but, at any rate, 

 I never could make out more than three chicks 

 together, with either one or both of the birds. It 

 struck me that, after the family had left the nest, 

 there was a tendency for the parents to divide, one 

 taking two chicks, and the other the remaining one, 

 since they could not take them two and two. It in- 

 terested me, therefore, to come, now and again, on one 

 of another pair of dabchicks, sitting in the nest — or 

 a nest — with one half-grown chick only. Whenever 

 I saw them, this dabchick and one chick were always 

 by themselves. The question arises whether it is 

 usual for only three out of the dabchick's four eggs 

 to be hatched out. But whether this is possible, or 

 why, if it is, it should be so, I do not know. 



