Pond Life 
and then they sail round and round in 
circles, with their wings and tails ele- 
vated, until one bird drives the other 
away, pursuing it over the water with 
chattering cries, and a great deal of fuss 
and commotion. 
But when at last the daylight began 
to fail, and I crawled out of hiding, I was 
quite cramped with cold and with squat- 
ting so long in uncomfortable attitudes. 
So to take the stiffness out of my bones 
I climbed up to see how the herons were 
getting on, finding the nests empty but 
nearly ready for eggs. On my next 
visit one nest had five lovely pale-blue 
eggs lying on the sticks of which it was 
made. 
The dabchicks are the funniest and 
the smallest water-birds we have in 
England. They like a river, not too 
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