BIRD LIFE 243 



Birds, if uneasy for the safety of their eggs, will not 

 unfrequently move them. A Dabchick a year or two 

 ago built its nest in a rather exposed place in the 

 ornamental water in St. James's Park. Before she began 

 to sit she thought it prudent to move it. The nest was 

 cut adrift from the dipping bough to which it had first 

 been made fast, and towed several yards to a more 

 secluded corner under an overhanging bush, to which 

 it was lashed. 



A move of the kind when a nest is a floating raft like 

 a Dabchick's is easy enough. But birds with less 

 facilities will occasionally do as much. Mr. Pycroft 

 tells a pathetic story of a pair of Merlins who, after 

 having been fired at several times when on the nest, 

 ' transported the eggs to a bank forty yards distant, 

 placed a few leaves under them, and succeeded in 

 hatching them out.' 



The Bar-tailed Pigeon of North America has, he 

 adds, several times been seen, when frightened, to carry 

 its eggs from the nest to another tree. But it is not 

 perhaps very generally known that one at least of the 

 larger Penguins habitually carries its eggs about. An 

 interesting note on the subject, very kindly sent to the 

 writer by a member of the staff" of the Challenger, 

 shortly after the return of the ship from her long 

 voyage of discovery, has unfortunately been for the 

 moment mislaid. To quote it from memory, there is 

 a fold of bare skin, with muscles unusually developed, 

 which practically forms a pouch between the legs. 

 From this the egg of more than one bird killed for 



