172 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



first found the nest destroyed that I saw for the first time this 

 third bird. That some drama had taken place between the 8th 

 and the 17th I cannot help suspecting, and I regret now extremely 

 that I was unable to watch during the intervening days. How- 

 ever, what seems most probable is that the nest was plundered 

 and destroyed by someone,* that the two birds then swam about 

 all day on the lake, and that an unpaired male, seeing a female 

 whom he thought might possibly be also free, approached her 

 with honourable intentions, for which she never forgave him.t 



May %lst. — Arrive at 6 a.m. The two birds are swimming 

 together, and I at once notice a new nest in the same place as 

 the other, which has been built since yesterday. It looks, 

 through the glasses, as large and substantial as was the first. 

 The birds swim about together as usual, preening themselves, 

 &c. ; but in about ten minutes the male, with a little turn towards 

 the female, as though to ask her concurrence, starts towards the 

 nest, swimming straight on without pausing, in a purposive 

 manner. Soon he dives, and, coming up with weeds, continues to- 

 wards it, and works at it for some few minutes without being joined 

 by the female ; so that I begin to think the male alone builds 

 the nest. After a time, however, the female comes, and at once 

 shows herself the more efficient of the two (though the male is 

 also very efficient), diving more frequently, and bringing up 

 larger masses of weed. Both birds now work together quickly 

 and systematically, generally diving for each load of material, 

 but sometimes — and especially the female — collecting it from the 

 surface near the bank. They must have carried perhaps a dozen 

 cargoes between them before I take out my watch. It is then 

 6.20, and in the next ten minutes they bring, together, twenty-five 

 cargoes. The female then— at 6.30— springs upon the nest, and 

 lies all along it in the way I have described, wishing evidently to 

 receive the male. He, however, does not respond. She soon 

 comes off again (in less than a minute), and the building con- 

 tinues with the greatest activity, as before. " Fervet opus," and by 



■■'• The shepherd-boy, I may say, was half-witted, but this would leave 

 him quite clever enough for the act. 



i I have no doubt now that the bird I iirst saw by the nest was the male 

 of the original pair, that the female going far afield — as she has often done — 

 was courted by another male, and that this other one's remaining afterwards 

 near the nest was mere chance. 



