PIED STILT 29 
scum of sun-dried river-weed. Thinking that the 
hen bird would the sooner return with a light 
heart, I replaced these chicks in the nest still con- 
taining the two unhatched eggs. To my surprise, 
however, she would not sit at all. Unable to 
fathom her reasons, I wondered at what seemed 
a sudden perverse mistrust of the screen. Hach 
of us consequently endured a morning of anguish, 
she fearing to return to her eggs lest my evil 
eye should fall on her tender offspring—of course 
she believed them undiscovered—and I fearing 
that to save the lives of the chicks and the vitality 
of the eggs my screen would have to be removed. 
I was indeed in the very act of trekking—I had 
given myself five minutes more—when even more 
desperate than myself she approached and lured 
the chicks from my wicked proximity. Her un- 
easiness and anxiety, as I afterwards understood, 
were consequent on the knowledge that the chicks 
should not have been in the nest at all—where 
in my ignorance I had placed them—that they 
should have been running with the cock bird. 
Having got them away and delivered to her 
mate, who, like little Peterkin, “ stood expectant 
by,” she returned with perfect composure and 
confidence to her straw and two remaining eggs, 
and settled down under my very nose. 
Chicks of Pied Stilt, immediately after emerging 
from the shell, leave their nest, and at once begin 
