PLATE II 

 WATERMEN. Gallinula chloropus 



May 27///, 1893. This Plate was taken from a very pretty nest beside a 

 tiny pool in a swampy piece of ground on the shores of the Lake of Monteith. 

 It was beautifully concealed among the flowering rushes and cotton-grass, 

 and was built of pieces of fresh rushes and lined with green grass and leaves 

 of the meadow-sweet, against the dark green of which the five pale-buff red- 

 spotted eggs made a lovely contrast. 



Both birds were at the nest when I came upon it, and ran away among 

 the rushes to the water's edge, where I heard them calling to each other. 

 When I visited the nest about a fortnight later it contained ten eggs, and 

 two of them were chipped, and next morning as I rowed past the spot in my 

 boat I saw nine little downy black dots running nimbly about on the top of 

 the water-lily leaves among the reeds, catching insects, while the two old 

 birds swam about close at hand, bobbing their heads and jerking their tails 

 with pride. 



This pair reared a second brood beside the same pool, in a new nest not 

 ten yards from the one in which the first brood was hatched. I discovered 

 the nest when there were only three eggs in it, on the gth of July. Only 

 five eggs were laid, and the nest was destroyed by some vermin, as I found 

 two of the eggs lying sucked within a few feet of the nest. This second nest 

 was also entirely composed of green rushes and bits of meadow-sweet, and 

 lined with green grass. 



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