A GOOD OBSERVATORY 307 



placed overnight, make a capital observatory, for, as 

 they stand upright, they do not need to be leant 

 against anything, and their thin, open wood-work is 

 indistinguishable amidst any growth that attains 

 their own height. They are, moreover, comfortable 

 either to sit or stand on. 



Returning to the dabchicks, two out of the three 

 remaining eggs were hatched out in as many days, 

 but the last one, as in the case of the first nest I had 

 watched, remained as it was for several days longer, 

 nor can I, from my notes, make out whether it was 

 finally hatched, or not. 1 However, as I say that I 

 feel sure it was, it must, I suppose, have disappeared 

 from the nest, but I never saw more than three 

 chicks together, either with one or both of the old 

 birds. Later on, the parents became more separated, 

 and I then never saw more than two chicks with 

 either, which makes me think that, at this stage, they 

 divide the care of the young between them. They 

 had then, for some time, ceased to resort to the nest, 

 but as long as they continued to do so, they shared 

 their responsibilities in another way, for whilst one 

 of them, which I took to be the female, generally 

 sat in the nest with the chicks upon her back, the 

 other the male used to come to it and feed 

 them. This he did more assiduously than any bird 

 that I have ever seen discharge the office, for 

 between 6 and 7, one evening, he had fed them 

 forty times. After that I ceased to count, but he 

 continued his ministrations in the same eager 

 manner, for another three-quarters of an hour. 

 To get the weed, he generally dived, and, on 



1 But see pp. 319, 320. 



