A SUBURBAN ESTATE 17 



still for many minutes. His long neck is bent and 

 his head is drawn down to his .back, and he appears 

 to be asleep. But slowly we see his long beak rising, 

 his neck shows, and then his head is plunged under 

 the water, and food of some kind is brought up. 

 This is swallowed, and the bird moves slowly a few 

 feet farther down by the side of the reeds ; then 

 carefully washing his beak by shaking it backwards 

 and forwards in the water, he again settles down to 

 watch and wait. 



In a small bay near one end of the lake there 

 swims a coot. This is the male, who is guarding 

 his corner of the water, and no other coot is allowed 

 to enter this apparently private property; yet many 

 of these water-birds do perhaps accidentally swim 

 towards the corner, sacred to the coot because his 

 mate is sitting on her eight eggs underneath a bush 

 just on the shore of the small bay. Directly he sees 

 another coot approaching he swims towards it, and 

 if the invader still approaches the reserved corner, 

 he endeavours to the best of his ability to protect 

 this space from trespass. Not for a moment does he 

 turn his back to the enemy. Whichever way the 

 approaching coot swims he is faced, and when they 

 are near to one another, the coot on guard raises his 

 wings over his back and brings them forward in the 

 shape of an open fan ; his head and neck are laid 

 flat on the water, the beak only being raised a little, 

 B 



