. British birds . day for my work. This was the first time I obtaineda photograph of all four nestlings together. Just aftermounting the ladder a sudden heavy shower forcedme to shut up the camera and descend. Then occurredone of the prettiest sights it was my luck to witness,but I had to remain fretting and fuming on the four young birds stood upright and flapped theirwings in unison all the time the storm lasted, twistingtheir heads from side to side with quaint, sinuous move-ments, and evincing every symptom of keen were at all times amusing, and the first and four
. British birds . day for my work. This was the first time I obtaineda photograph of all four nestlings together. Just aftermounting the ladder a sudden heavy shower forcedme to shut up the camera and descend. Then occurredone of the prettiest sights it was my luck to witness,but I had to remain fretting and fuming on the four young birds stood upright and flapped theirwings in unison all the time the storm lasted, twistingtheir heads from side to side with quaint, sinuous move-ments, and evincing every symptom of keen were at all times amusing, and the first and fourth VOL. vm.] CORMORANTS IN NORFOLK. 137 birds had an individuality of their own. No. 1, beingthe eldest and strongest, swaggered considerably andlorded it over the rest; No. 4, being the last in the nestand somewhat less adventurous than the others, playedsolitary games. They all loved a tug-of-war with bitsof stick: two or three, and sometimes all four, took partin this. Their individual diversion was to pull off. Fig. 7. WATCHING THE WORLD IN GENERAL, JULY 31st,{Photographed by Miss E. L. Turner.) leaves, drop them outside the nest and then lean outto watch them flutter out of sight. Sometimes twointerlocked their beaks and engaged in a mild shamfight. They never quarrelled, and their mutual con-versation sounded quite amicable, if raucous. OnJuly 27th the two older birds stood on the edge of thenest flapping their wings vigorously and rapidly forten minutes at a stretch, so that I was not surprised tohear three days later that they had flown. I was toldthat there were six birds on the wing, but the twoyounger birds were as yet quite unable to fly. 138 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vm. When I went again on the .31st two flew out of the nest,while the remaining birds sat up and watched the worldin general. Later in the day I rowed after the twofledged birds and found that they could only take shortflights, after which they either dropped on to the wateror stood on shore. Sometimes they
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