76 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



be those who protect their native birds — I 

 may be there hoping to get on some im- 

 proved kinematograph, films of the Notornis, 

 Colenso's Coot and the mysterious Megapode 

 of the Kermadec Islands, all yet surviving 

 in the Elj^sian fields. 



However, to return to our subject. 

 After a little the male became somewhat 

 bolder and though evidently still uneasy, 

 began to slowly approach the nest. Every 

 moment I expected to see him settle do\vn, 

 when to my disgust the nestlings were one 

 by one ravished from my sight, and I 

 could only observe the male at intervals 

 appearing and reappearing behind the nest, 

 which was now used against me as a shelter 

 and shield. Finding the repeated signals 

 disregarded, he had probably taken them 

 down in his beak or claw, or, of course it 

 is also possible that even while I waited 

 the instincts of the chicks had developed 

 to the point of interpretation of the 

 parental calls. 



There is little doubt, anyway, that the 

 old birds must on occasion pick up the 

 voung either in beak or claw, for the 



