THE LAKE IN THE VALLEY 141 



There was a Coot's nest close to this 

 Grebe's nest, but the birds seemed on 

 friendly terms. The nests were so close 

 together that I was able to photograph 

 both birds from my one hiding place. 

 When I discovered the nests I was very 

 much surprised to find that the Little 

 Grebe's nest contained three of her own 

 eggs and one laid by the Coot ! This 

 clearly showed that the Coot on one 

 occasion at least had mistaken her home, 

 and she probably spent a night on the 

 Grebe's nest, but whether the Grebe re- 

 taliated by sitting on the Coot's eggs I 

 cannot say. In one of my bioscope 

 pictures I was able to photograph the 

 Little Grebe standing immediately under 

 the Coot's nest, but I was not able to 

 get pictures of the Coot near the Grebe. 



I was particularly struck with the 

 rapidity with which the Grebe covered 

 her eggs over. If anything alarmed 

 her, she jumped up on the nest, threw 



