'270 BIRD LIFE GLIMPSES 



diminished, by the birds themselves. One day, how- 

 ever, I happened to be watching a pair of moorhens, 

 by a lake in a certain park, when I noticed one of 

 them walking away from the nest to which, though 

 it appeared quite built, they had both been adding 

 with some large thing, of a rounded shape, in its 

 bill. Before I had time to make out what this 

 thing was, the bird, still carrying it, became hidden 

 behind some foliage, and this happened again on a 

 second occasion, much to my disappointment, since 

 my curiosity was now aroused. Resolved not to 

 miss another opportunity if I could help it, I kept 

 the glasses turned upon this bird whenever it was 

 visible, and very soon I saw it go again to the nest, 

 and, standing just outside it, with its head craned 

 over the rim, spear down suddenly into it, and then 

 walk away, with an egg transfixed on its bill. The 

 nest was on a mudbank in the midst of shallow 

 water, through which the bird waded to the shore, 

 and deposited the egg there, somewhere where I 

 could not see it. Twice, now, at short intervals, the 

 same bird returned to the nest, speared down with 

 its bill, withdrew it with an egg spitted on its point, 

 and walked away with it, as before. Instead of 

 landing with it, however, it, each of these times, 

 dropped it in the muddy water, and I saw as clearly 

 through the glasses as if I had been there, that the 

 egg, each time, sank. This shows that they were 

 fresh, for one can test eggs in this manner. Had 

 it been, not the whole egg, but only the greater part 

 of its shell that the bird was carrying, this would have 

 floated, a conspicuous object on 3 the black, stagnant 

 water. That it was the whole egg, and transfixed, 



