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124 A VISIT TO POCHARD ISLAND— 
change in the height of the water, it was 
imprisoned by the branches of the tree. So 
well are coot’s nests put together that, though 
sometimes washed out of their places in a 
flood, they do not fall to pieces, and the bird 
will go on sitting as if nothing had happened. 
This Noah’s ark like structure was 24 feet 
long, 18 inches broad and stood quite a 
foot out of the water, being quite out of 
proportion to the size of the birds. The 
floating foundation was of dead sticks; on 
these was reared the body of the nest, com- 
posed entirely of round slippery stems of 
floating pond-weed, each stem three or four 
feet long, and quite fresh, the terminal leaves 
being green and intact. They must have 
been pulled out one by one from the bottom 
of the water and brought several hundred 
yards, as we saw none growing nearer. They 
were cleverly twined round each other, so as 
to make the shape oval. The nest was 
almost flat and had no lining, so the single 
egg seemed to be in a very unsafe position. 
But afterwards the birds buttressed up the 
