Pond Life 
rapid, or a fair-sized pond surrounded 
with trees or bushes, to live in. Like the 
water-hens or moorhens, they too have 
found how safe they are in the London 
parks, and they nest in several of the 
ponds there. This nest is as curious as 
they are, for it is made of weeds pulled 
up from the bottom of the water, and 
dead leaves also from the same place, 
and it floats on the top so that the bird 
can climb into it in order to sit on her 
egos. To prevent it moving about from 
place to place, they anchor it, by fasten- 
ing it to some twig or branch if they can 
find one growing in or hanging over the 
water. Whenever the little bird leaves 
her nest she always arranges a covering 
over the eggs by scratching some of the 
wet weeds at the side of the nest over 
them. Having done this she slips in 
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