172 BIRDS OF THE WATER 



few minutes later the silence of the bush 

 was broken by a single sharp, clear note 

 from a Tui, and shortly afterwards a 

 Warbler began to trill. The young Pigeon 

 lay with his head sunk between his shoul- 

 ders, and remained in that posture till after 

 eight o'clock. About then I heard the 

 parent birds settle in the immediate vicinity 

 of the nest, and presently I became sure 

 that the youngster was about to be fed. 

 He also knew it, becoming watchful and 

 attentive to every sound, and beginning also 

 to pipe faintly and agitate his wings, 

 shaking them out from his sides with a 

 curious shivering motion. These expressions 

 of his feelmgs became more and more 

 marked as the hen bird approached, and 

 when at length she perched only a few yards 

 distant from the nest, the youngster's eyes 

 were rivetted to her with an intensity of 

 gaze almost solemn in its earnestness. 



I noticed, too, that though he thus fol- 

 lowed with his head her every motion, he 

 had shuffled his body round so that it 

 pointed directly towards a certain claw 

 marked bough that led on to the nest plat- 



