. Discovery. Science. 46 DISCOVERY little forward ; and the neck, presumably so as not to throw the centre of gravity further up, is bent down in an ugly curve half-way to the groimd. The bird only saves itself from falling forwards by moving, and can only do so, as I said, for a short time. On reaching the nest, she almost always, while still standing, carefully presses the two eggs well into her feathers with her beak, then sitting down and rolling from side to side to get them comfortable. After a few minutes she will usually rise and rearrange the eggs. I was watching the nest with one egg
. Discovery. Science. 46 DISCOVERY little forward ; and the neck, presumably so as not to throw the centre of gravity further up, is bent down in an ugly curve half-way to the groimd. The bird only saves itself from falling forwards by moving, and can only do so, as I said, for a short time. On reaching the nest, she almost always, while still standing, carefully presses the two eggs well into her feathers with her beak, then sitting down and rolling from side to side to get them comfortable. After a few minutes she will usually rise and rearrange the eggs. I was watching the nest with one egg, referred to above, with a telescope, from a hiding-tent some forty yards away. The hen had been sitting steadily for several hours, protecting the egg from marauding skuas and gulls. Suddenly her mate flew down onto the. A REM.\RK.\BI,Y IE.\ DI\ liR SNAPPING AT A;, i; . ij. LHai (THE WRITER). pool. Almost at once she left the nest, made towards the cock, and swam round him several times with her neck extended in front of her—a snake-like pose, but one rigid with excitement. However, he was un- responsive. Soon after, she gave what I call the "; The bird dives with a flick, sending a shower of spray into the air (as opposed to the noiseless submergence of serious diving for food), to emerge only a few feet away, alwa^^s close to its mate. This was repeated four or five times, and stimulated the cock to a little similar diving. I have since found that this splash-diving is always associated with excitement (sometimes with quite other forms of excitement, as when one very tame bird employed it in anger when I drove her off her nearly-hatching eggs), and seems to be especially used as a stimulus by one bird of the pair—it may be either male or female—to key up the emotions of the other. Immediately after- wards they swam together to a low bank of green moss, onto which the cock scrambled. He stood upright, stamped alternately with his feet, and s
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