94 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
he brought back was for the particular chick I had last seen - 
him with, yesterday, and whether the other is still where, or near 
where, I lost sight of it, I cannot say for certain, though this 
seems probable. 
It was now between 4 and 5 a.m., and as it appeared that 
there would be nothing for me to witness, which I had not seen 
before, I thought that I would walk to a point on the coast, 
which, from what I had heard, might have some attraction for 
me—a decision which I have afterwards regretted—there is 
indeed nothing like keeping still and seeing all one can see, 
when one is certain that there will be something. First, how- 
ever, I thought I would walk round the loch, as I wished to 
satisfy myself, if possible, as to where the birds sat behind the 
little projecting point, so often alluded to, and particularly 
whether it was on the nest or not. I therefore started to do 
so, but had not walked many paces before the male (as I think) 
went up from the accustomed place, and the two chicks then 
appeared on the water there. Going on, I found, round the 
little grassy point, a depression in the grass, just answering, in 
situation, to where, on the first occasion, I had seen the bird’s 
head, motionless, above the level of the bank, and which was, 
self-evidently, the place where one or other of the dams are 
accustomed to sit, with one or both chicks under their wings, 
nor did this depression—roughly circular in form—bear any 
resemblance to the nest which I have seen, either in itself or in 
its situation. The nest itself, though I walked round the little 
loch twice, I was unable to discover. It appears, therefore, that 
at some time between 10.5 p.m. yesterday, when I last saw the 
mother and one chick by themselves at the near end of the loch, 
and its becoming light enough to see the birds at all, this morn- 
ing, this mother’s chick had joined the other under the charge 
of its father—but at what time this was, and whether the mother 
had sat with them, also, I do not know. The fact, however, of — 
the depression in the grass I have mentioned being single and 
not double, and of there being no other than this one at any part 
of the bank, makes it probable that one parent alone roosts on the 
ground, in this way, with both the young ones, during the short 
night. I suppose, now, that the female bird went up the loch 
soon or just after I ceased to see them in the increasing dark- 
