HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



throat the old bird would be gone for another. I 

 was with a friend, and we wondered when its de- 

 vouring cormorant appetite would be appeased, and 

 how its maw could contain so much food; we also 

 compared it to a hungry Italian greedily sucking 

 down macaroni. 



While this was going on a second young bird had 

 been on the old nest on the little island in the lake, 

 quietly dozing; and at length this one got off his 

 dozing-place, and swam out to where the weed-fishing 

 and feeding were in progress. As he came up, the 

 old coot rose with a white stem in her beak, which 

 the new-comer pushed forward to take ; but the other 

 thrust himself before him, and, snatching the stem 

 from his parent's beak, swallowed it himself. The old 

 coot remained perfectly motionless for a space of about 

 four seconds, looking fixedly at the greedy one who 

 had been gorging for twenty minutes yet refused to 

 give place to the other. Then very suddenly, and 

 with incredible fury, she dashed at and began hunt- 

 ing him over the pond. In vain he rose up and flew 

 over the water, beating the surface with his feet, 

 uttering cries of terror; in vain he dived; again and 

 again she overtook and dealt him the most savage 

 blows with her sharp beak, until, her anger thoroughly 

 appeased and the punishment completed, she swam 

 back to the second bird, waiting quietly at the same 

 spot for her return, and began once more diving for 

 white stems of the Polygonum. 



