“A DOZEN YELLOW-EYED BIRDS AT MY THRESHOLD” 
suspicions ? Twice they rose in a body and 
swept over the rookery, each time alighting 
again in the lagoon. It was a reconnais- 
sance in force, with evidently satisfactory 
results. No signs of danger were detected 
in the rookery, and, in the absence of 
ability to count, the retreat of one figure 
across the swash was as reassuring as the 
approach of two figures had been alarming. 
Without further delay, the birds returned 
to their homes. They came ov foot, a great 
red cohort, marching steadily toward me. 
I felt like a spy in an enemy’s camp. 
Might not at least one pair of the nearly 
four thousand eyes detect something un- 
natural in the newly grown bush almost 
within their city gates? No sign of alarm, 
however, was shown; without confusion, 
and as if trained to 
the evolution, the 
birds advanced with 
stately tread to their 
nests. There was a 
bowing of a forest 
of slender necks as 
each bird lightly 
touched its egg or 
LXIxX.—22 
nest with its bill; then, all talking loudly, 
they stood up on their nests; the black 
wings were waved for a moment, and bird 
after bird dropped forward upon its egg. 
After a vigorous, wriggling motion, de- 
signed evidently to bring the egg into close 
contact with the skin, the body was still, 
but the long neck and head were for a time 
in constant motion, preening, picking up 
material at the base of the nest, dabbling 
in a near-by puddle, or perhaps drinking 
from it, occasionally sparring with one of 
the three or four neighbors within reach, 
when, bill grasping bill, there ensued a 
brief and harmless test of strength. 
In some instances a bird was seen add- 
ing to a nest in which an egg had already 
been deposited. Standing on the nest, it 
would drag up mud 
from the base with 
its bill, which was 
then used to press 
the fresh material 
into place. The feet 
were also of service 
in treading down 
the soft, marly clay. 
173 
