256 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



man and buzzard, their chief enemies. This habit of theirs 

 of braiding over their nests with the young gladen and stuff 

 sometimes, however, betrays its position. 



In the nest are laid the seven, eight, or nine well-known 

 eggs, when the birds begin to sit, the off-duty bird feeding in 

 the shallows near, diving and pulling up the weed from 

 the depths just like a swan. Later, you will see the bright 

 scarlet-crowned cock, and hen of soberer hue, swimming 

 in the stuff with their fluffy little nestlings the old birds 

 whistling softly, and the young answering. On the least 

 alarm, the youngsters dive and swim to cover, where they 

 skulk, the old birds crying excitedly through the stuff, 

 warning the scattered clutch from the enemy's pursuit. 

 Though the young leave the nest soon after they are 

 hatched, they frequently return to it and roost, forcing 

 the nest down, and dunging all over it. But the prettiest 

 sight on still clear days is to see the little nestlings huddled 

 on a large water-lily leaf, or feeding across a mosaic of 

 leaves, old birds and all. I once saw a little nestling de- 

 serted by his family die on a lily-leaf. Should a buzzard 

 pounce down into the stuff and suck the eggs or take the 

 young, the hen will shriek dolefully, screaming round the 

 nest in the most agonised manner, her voice resembling that 

 of a human being in distress. I once caught a " buzzard " in 

 the act of sucking some waterhen's eggs.* 



The young are difficult little things to catch in the stuff. 

 It is the practice with marshmen who wish to capture them 

 to mow a clear space round about their nest, and then 

 "hide up" near-by of an early morning, or at dusk when 

 they come out to feed, and pounce upon them in the 

 " clear." Yet I have known a well-trained dog carry two 

 in its mouth at once. I have known the same dog to bring 

 three eggs one after the other from a waterhen's nest 

 to his master, all unbroken. If you chase the young up the 

 dikes, and they get hard pressed, they will take to the rat- 

 * Vide " On English Lagoons." 



