4 THE HOME-LIFE OF 



boat, and creeping thigh deep in water into my dome- 

 shaped retreat was forcibly reminded of a beaver entering 

 its home. 



Very soon after the boat had withdrawn the owners 

 of the more distant nests began to return, and by degrees 

 those nearer took courage or lost fear and resumed duty, 

 until finally only my bird was absent. Hour by hour 

 passed, and though at intervals she flew by, turning her 

 solemn head to prolong her view of the tent after she had 

 passed, she did not venture to alight, and I was beginning 

 to fear for the welfare of her eggs when, without any 

 preliminary swoops or warning, she dropped noisily 

 on to her nest, and stood looking at the camera (Plate 2). 

 I hardly dared to breathe, the slightest sound or move- 

 ment might send her headlong from the nest, and so 

 we stood, each eying the other, motionless and silent. 

 I could see her chief fear lay not in the tent as a whole, 

 but in the eye-like lens staring out at her from its side, 

 and instead of getting more easy as time went on, her 

 manner grew more restless, and seeing that she was about 

 to go I decided to risk an exposure and nipped the bulb. 

 But the slight click made by the shutter electrified her ; 

 she almost overbalanced in her hurry to depart, and with 

 a tremendous flapping took flight, the whole colony 

 accompanying her. My outlook from the peephole 

 was limited to a narrow angle, and though I could not 

 look upwards, I could hear the swish of their wings as the 

 birds circled round and round low over the reeds, always 

 passing immediately above my head. Those which had 

 risen only in obedience to the alarm of others soon settled 

 down again, but though I waited the pleasure of my 

 bird long she did not return. Her naturally delicate 

 nerves had received so rude a shock as to forbid her to face 

 that staring eye again, until night compelled it, for then 

 the alternative was the desertion of her nest ! 



Having given her a day's grace in which to settle down, 

 the 19th found us early at the colony, and we were not 



