THE ANGLER'S BIRDS. 197 



Early in May the nest of the dabchick can 

 be found on almost any of the lagoons and 

 ponds that occur in the marshes. It is a 

 loosely compiled structure generally formed on 

 a floating island of weeds and rushes, con- 

 structed so as to rise and fall with the water 

 level, while moored sufficiently well to keep its 

 place in the current. As however it chooses 

 backwaters in a river there is seldom much 

 danger of the nest being carried away. The 

 bird while sitting always manages to slip off 

 the nest into the water without splash if dis- 

 turbed, after covering its eggs with weed. To 

 such a pitch of perfection has modern obser- 

 vation been brought that I saw the whole 

 process of a mother feeding its young, on a 

 cinematograph in London, far better than any 

 ordinary observer could succeed in doing by 

 the waterside with Zeiss glasses. A second 

 brood is hatched out as a rule, for I have 

 seen the little chicks in Hampshire in August 

 on more than one season. They can swim 

 as soon as they are a day old, their educa- 

 tion in diving being complete perhaps a week 

 later. 



