414 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



we came — had returned to the islet, and kept swimming just off 

 it, often with its body almost submerged, which may have been 

 for the sake of concealment. At last, about 7 p.m., it went on 

 to the nest again. Being engaged with the tent, at the time, I 

 did not myself see the landing, but afterwards I could watch its 

 head, as it sat, with the glasses, and it continued so to sit till 

 past 11, when I went to bed, and when I first looked out on the 

 following morning — 



June 15th — which was at a little past 6, there was the, or 

 at least a, head still, for whether it belonged to the same bird 

 or not I could not, of course, be certain, but I believe it did, 

 and that it was the better of the two, viz. — but there is no need 

 to specify further. The bird continued to sit for more than 

 another hour, when her partner appeared, rounding a curve of 

 the islet, and, on seeing him, she came off the nest into the 

 water, sliding down the bank, as it appeared to me, and swam 

 towards him. The two rounded the point in opposite directions, 

 passing each other without any close approach or observable 

 greeting, and the newcomer, after swimming in once or twice, 

 under the bank, and then out again, at length took his place on the 

 nest, appearing to force himself up the bank by a single powerful 

 impetus, but more than this I could not make out from where I 

 was. J now took down the tent and pitched it again right out 

 of sight of the island, for it was better, I thought, that the birds 

 should not see it, and I much preferred watching them alfresco. 

 When I returned to my outlook at 10 a.m., the nest was still 

 occupied, and, whilst watching it, the partner-bird reappeared 

 near the islet, rounded it, then dived, and I saw it no more. 

 It came up the lake in a very leisurely manner, frequently 

 turning right on its side, with one leg stretched out behind 

 it, above the water, so that almost the whole of the white 

 ventral surface was visible. In this position it kept preening 

 itself, when it would turn round and round in the water, not, 

 it seemed, with any purpose of doing so, but by the laws of 

 mechanics merely, probably because, through habit, it still kept 

 paddling with the foot that was under water. Now imagine this 

 rotary motion, added to the gleaming white breast and speckled 

 back, and then let naturalists seriously ask themselves whether 

 anything protective is to be made out of the result. I, at least, 



