FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 201 



gully. The female went straight to the nest 

 without heeding the apparently lifeless chick 

 lodged in the weed. The male quitted the 

 nest with half the egg shell in his beak, dived, 

 and rose without it. Then the female came in 

 and settled on the nest, which the male had not 

 covered. It was now 12.30, and both birds 

 had apparently given up the nestling, which I 

 took to be drowned. 



The female remained on the nest until 12.50. 

 moving at every sound. At 12.50 the male 

 came and the female quitted, and the male 

 mounted the nest ; but he had not got the babe 

 likewise he did not do what I desired as regards 

 posing, for first he sat facing the opposite way 

 and then directly facing the camera. At 1.0 I 

 noticed the nestling was not dead, because he 

 struggled and made a small ripple, so I stole 

 softly out of the back of the tent and, appearing 

 some distance away, I put the male off the 

 nest and went round with a couple of long sticks 

 lashed together to fish out the nestling, which 

 I managed successfully. The poor little chap 

 was nearly done, so I laid him on the warm 

 bank in the sun after holding him up and 

 letting the water out of his mouth and throat, 

 after which he opened his eyes. I then trans- 

 ferred him to my pocket. About three minutes 

 after I heard a faint cheep like a chicken, and 

 found the nestling, while anything but vigorous, 

 to some extent recovered. I made a little 

 nest of dry grass and put him in the warm 

 sun close to the real nest, which was out of my 

 reach. I then went back to the tent and at 

 1.20 one of the parent birds appeared in the 

 offing. I heard both birds calling to one 

 another while on the pond, the note being a 



