42 Notes on a Waterherfs Nest. 



when four newly-hatched chicks fluttered and fell into the 

 water, their fall being broken by the leaves of a rhododendron 

 growing under the tree. On examining the nest I found four 

 eggs remaining, suggesting the notion that since the seven eggs 

 were first counted on the 6th another must have been deposited ; 

 but, only fifteen days having elapsed and incubation continuing 

 three weeks, this supposition had to be discarded, as at the 

 least improbable. I visited it again on the 22nd, when another 

 young bird took the water. On the next day I found the 

 parent sitting, and passed on without disturbing it. I next 

 visited it on the 24th, when one of the old birds flew from under 

 the bushes, which were too dense to allow of my seeing whether 

 it was tending the young brood that had taken the water. 

 Looking into the nest, another young bird tumbled out, and 

 there were then two eggs remaining. On the following day, 

 the 25th, another chick was out of the shell. This showed no 

 disposition to leave the nest, as the others had done. I placed 

 it for a momeut in the water, in which it seemed perfectly at 

 home, and then replaced it in the nest. Next day, the 26th, it 

 took the water in the same manner as the rest of the brood. 

 Looking in the nest again, on the 27th, I found the remaining 

 egg quite cold. This I broke, and, to my surprise, found it to 

 contain two perfectly formed and all but fully developed dead 

 birds, and there can be no reasonable doubt that both would 

 have been hatched had not the nest been forsaken, probably 

 owing to the parent bird having been disturbed by some men 

 who were mowing the grass about the tree. Until this freak 

 of nature was discovered the supposition might have been 

 entertained that another egg had been laid in the nest after it 

 was first noticed, in order to account for seven chicks having 

 been hatched ; but the most likely solution now appeared to be 

 that two other birds had been hatched from one egg. 



There are three points in regard to this that might be 

 considered noteworthy — First, the unusual position of the 

 nest ; second, the time (five days) that elapsed from the 

 hatching of the first four eggs to that of the sixth ; and third, 

 that one, if not two, of the seven eggs produced two chicks 

 each. 



