WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



more studies of other aquatic birds, and went once 

 more down to my " blind." 



It is wonderful what interesting things one can see 

 when lying hidden in such a spot. There was one bird 

 which interested me greatly. I afterwards discovered 

 it is called a " lily trotter." It has long, wide, 

 spreading toes, and is able to run along the tops of the 

 Hly leaves as easily as if it were on solid earth. Then 

 I watched some small birds similar in appearance 

 and nesting habits to our reed- warblers in England. 

 Two pairs of these had built their nests so close to 

 each other that the materials interlaced. I tried hard 

 to distinguish one female from the other, with a view 

 to finding out if either of them ever made a mistake 

 and sat down in the wrong nest upon returning home, 

 but had to give the task up in despair. 



Towards noon the heat became stifling and the sun 

 almost unbearable, so I set my boys to work roofing 

 in the front end of the boat, making a sort of 

 hut out of long reeds. It was a complete success, 

 for in it one was shaded from the sun and yet 

 the reeds were sufficiently loose to admit the air. 

 Another advantage was that one could also drift 

 right up to the shyer birds without their taking 

 alarm. i 



I do not know if I was specially hungry that night, 

 but the meat from the buck shot the previous day was 

 delicious. We had an excellent cook, certainly, but 



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