126
*
Lake Umbagog.
Leonard's Pond.
1897.
June 8
  This is the fourth day of south-east winds but the
sun has shone faintly for most of the time through
a thinly veiled sky.
  Gilbert and I were up before sunrise this morning and
at 4.30 we were at the Whistler's nest while Watrous
visited late morning. We approached it with great caution,
paddling slowly and silently the whole distance. The Whistler
was about and at first I feared that she had moved
her young during the night but on looking into the hole
I was delighted to find them still there huddled closely
together in a nich[e] shivering a little for the air was
sharp & keen. There were however only six of them with
the two eggs still unhatched. What had become of the
remaining four eggs? Watrous tells me that he did not
count the eggs on the 6th nor did he count the young
last evening but he is very sure that none of the eggs
were missing on the former occasion as the nest seemed
to be packed closely with them & the absence of as many
as four would have certainly left a gap that he could
surely have failed to notice. He is by no means
certain that there were more than six young and two
eggs last night.
[margin]*Watching
nest of
Whistler[/margin]
  Partially concealing one of the boats (we had taken two)
among  the stubs about 30 yards from the nest and
stretching myself at full length on the bottom with
my head raised just enough to enable me to look
over the gunwale I lay there perfectly motionless
for over an hour. No Duck of any kind appeared
until 5.10 when a [female] Whistler came from the
direction of the Megalloway and without any preliminary