74 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



The date of hatching, however, I had 

 miscalculated by ever so little, for upon 

 reaching the nest, there were two tiny 

 living chicks among the eggs, only an hour 

 or so hatched out. 



Pukeko chicks are from their birth 

 clothed along the spinal and other tracts 

 with silver tipped blackish down, the crowns 

 of their little heads are of a pinky baldness, 

 their great mouths when open of a faint 

 blood red hue, their beaks pink, too, and 

 even when only a few hours old, they make 

 great play about the nest, backwatering 

 with their absurd semaphore wings, also 

 pink and nearly nude. They are, in fact, 

 as grotesque little creatures as it is possible 

 to imagine. 



These two were so very lately hatched 

 that the parental alarm notes failed to 

 convey a meaning. In haste, therefore, I 

 removed the false camera and replaced it 

 with the genuine article, for I knew at 

 any moment the chicks' developing senses 

 might wake them to danger, and that then 

 the youngsters would instantly tumble out 

 of the nest. 



