152 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xm. 



The male amused me very much. Never have I seen a 

 bird so bored at his task of sitting upon the eggs ! For a 

 short time he preened his feathers, then lolled over on his ; 

 side with one leg waving languidly in the air, pushed his/ 

 beak down on to his breast and closed his eyes. Now and- 

 then he would raise his head and peer anxiously into the 

 reeds, no doubt to see if his mate was coming. But all 

 the time he remained, not once did he show that he was 

 conscious of having eggs underneath him. However, some- 

 thing occurred that showed that he was well aware of the im- 

 portance of his charge, for during one of his sleeping bouts the 

 Dabchick suddenly came up close to the nest. There was no 

 hesitation in his actions then, without a moment's doubt 

 he was up on the nest, and with crest raised, and wings 

 open he waited for the attack. It was not long in coming, 

 for the Dabchick jumped at him, and he met the enemy 

 with such a rain of blows from beak and wings that it seemed 

 considerably surprised, for it fell back and dived. It then 

 swam round the nest under water, and the bird above 

 turned en its nest watching its actions, and the instant it 

 came up, he was at it again. A desperate fight took place, 

 and as I had my bioscope in position I secured a record 

 of the battle. When this was over he settled down once 

 more, remaining on the alert for about 15 minutes, then 

 again seeming to be very bored, lolled on to his right side, 

 pushed out his leg, and closed his eyes. 



At 1.30 the female arrived and I never saw a bird show 

 such pleasure at being relieved from his task as did the male. 

 He left the nest, swam round it while his mate was settling 

 down, then dived and brought up a good beakful of weeds 

 from the bottom, handed these to the bird on the nest, 

 repeated the dive several times, each time bringing up more 

 nest material and placing it aiound the edge of the nest. 

 For two or three minutes he waited near the nest, then seemed 

 to swim right away, but five minutes later he was back, and 

 in his beak was a large fiat reed blade, longer than himself. 

 Of this he seemed very proud, and placed it on the side of the 

 nest, then moved to another position, and again moved it. 



