Bird Life Throvgh the Camera. 
27 
into my larj^cst pond aviary; they were caught near some 
disused brick ponds, where tliey were attracted by the food 
sui)plicd to my fancy duclcs. 
One of the codes and the hen paired, and started 1)uild- 
ing- about the end of April, but laid only three eg-g-s. Tliey 
then began to sit, and in due k'oursc hatched out three chicks, 
which have all been successfully reared. Both birds shared the 
duties of incubation but would leave the nest on the sli^^htcst 
suspicion of any approach; three days after the young were 
hatched I removed old and young to another aviary, with a 
pond, overlooked from my studio window, and here amongst 
the rushes and water grasses I 'had the pleasure of watching- 
them, quite unobserved, grow up, under the tender care of their 
parents, who spent most of the day searching around .the 
rushe.; for minute insects which were passed from beak to 
beak. 
Both young and old were generally to be seen on the 
pond, swimming backwards and forwards, but at the slightest 
alarm would take to cover. 
Besides these small insects the chicks were fed on 
Spratts' biscuit meal, the parent birds going ashore to fetch the 
food— a tiny piece at a time and swimming with it back 
to the expectant chicks, which seldom left the water for the 
first three weeks, but rested on partly submerged reeds. 
When hatched the young were black, with bright 
red beaks, which changed in colour after the first few weeks. 
They still swim about with the parent birds, from which 
it is now" difficult to distinguish them. 
All are very shy and not easy to photograph on account 
of theii' jerky movements, either of head or tail, but are most 
interesting birds to watch. 
One nest I tried to photograph, the young were .lust 
chipping the shell and whilst hidden in my hiding tent, .1 
watched the old bird deliberately help the young out of the 
shell, most likely she had become suspicious, and tliought 
the sooner they were hatched and taken to more secret quar- 
ters the better. 
In a wild state the nest is built among the rusha'? 
or reed grasses, very often some distance from the water; 
