90 BIRD LIFE ON ISLAND AND SHORE 
islets and rush bars. The particular quaking 
islet selected for the nest was surrounded on 
all sides by this black ooze. The nest itself was 
in the centre of a meagre rush plant, trodden 
almost flat by the great birds. It contained a family 
of five, a family so unbirdlike in appearance and 
with such unbirdlike notes that during the moment 
of discovery I stared wildly, amazedly, upon these 
strange live things—golliwogs, not birds—at my 
very feet. Their cold grey eyes, staring, pro- 
tuberant, were the eyes of fish; their polls grew 
a thin crop of long, grey, wavy down; circlewise 
they sat with naked haunches pressed together. 
Their low pipe to one another was the thin quick 
drip of water on water. They were modelled on 
fish or frogs rather than on avian types. Imme- 
diately at sight of me they froze themselves into 
snags, each little head and bill pointing skywards 
at an odd angle. Disturbed and handled, the 
chicks—hatched intermittently, and now when 
discovered from one to five days old—opened their 
vast cavernous mouths, and lunged forward as if 
- to strike, the biggest of all attempting to vomit 
up a small eel or “silvery.” From time to time, 
rather staggeringly, they preened themselves. Al- 
though hideous to look upon, they seemed never- 
theless a very friendly little family—good but not 
beautiful,—cuddled close together for warmth and 
comradeship. On account of the youth of these 
