INDIAN DUCKS AND THEIR ALLIES. 21 



every year on the river Avon, but these showed the keenest jealonsy of 

 one another, and no approach of any strange swan was allowed within 

 about 200 yards of a nest by the owners thereof. It must be 

 admitted that their ire was aroused equally as much by the advent 

 of humanity as by that of their own kind. Boats were always 

 greeted by the most warlike of demonstrations and canoes not 

 unfrequently upset, their occupants being more or less damaged by the 

 furious birds, which made for them in the water attempting to beat 

 them under with their wings. 



These swans, like most others of this species, generally choose small 

 islands well covered with bushes and rushes as sites for their nests, 

 most often selecting a mass of rushes close to the river's edge in 

 which to place it ; now and then, but not often, one might be found 

 well inland amongst the bushes. The site taken up by the birds 

 was not always above flood-level, and whenever the river rose they 

 were forced to add largely both to the height and bulk of the nest 

 in order that the water should not wash away the eggs. They 

 appeared to have no difficulty in working the materials under their 

 eggs, nor have I ever heard of their upsetting their eggs into the 

 water when so employed. Sometimes, however, when much frighten- 

 ed or when rushing to repel an enemy, they sweep an egg or two 

 into the water. They sometimes make use of an immense amount 

 of material in constructing their nests, and one such, in the Avon 

 above-mentioned, must have contained a couple of cart-loads of weeds. 

 What it was originally I do not know, but when I first saw it, after 

 a small flood, the diameter of the base must have been ten or twelve 

 feet, and it was close on six feet high. 



