154 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



though to the human eye, the rapidity of 

 their movements has not been perceptibly 

 accelerated, the dark room will tell a 

 different tale. Contrariwise, that is why 

 so often photographs will come out satis- 

 factorily when the two parents appear 

 together. Each has given the other con- 

 fidence, with the result that their motions 

 are more slow and leisurely. This in part 

 also accounts for the superiority of a 

 second over a first day's work. 



The sunlessness of this last season, too, 

 and its constant summer rainfall, also 

 militated against us, the Jordan sunshine 

 recorder showing eight perfectly sunless 

 days during November, and nine during 

 December. Then, also — and this is the best 

 reason of all to account for niy failure 

 with the Tui — I had no intimate knowledge 

 of its habits; I mean that real intimacy 

 begot of watching unseen a bird, hour after 

 hour, and day after day. 



At the beginning of the season we did 

 not dare to take liberties, which too late we 

 found might have been successfully at- 

 tempted. In our siege work we erred on 



