. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . places in aflood, they do not fall to pieces, and the birdwill go on sitting as if nothing had Noahs ark like structure was 2j feetlong, i8 inches broad and stood quite afoot out of the water, being quite out ofproportion to the size of the birds. Thefloating foundation was of dead sticks ; onthese was reared the body of the nest, com-posed entirely of round slippery stems offloating pond-weed, each stem three or fourfeet long, and quite fresh, the terminal leavesbeing green and intact. They must havebeen pulled o
. Birds and their nests and eggs : found in and near great towns . places in aflood, they do not fall to pieces, and the birdwill go on sitting as if nothing had Noahs ark like structure was 2j feetlong, i8 inches broad and stood quite afoot out of the water, being quite out ofproportion to the size of the birds. Thefloating foundation was of dead sticks ; onthese was reared the body of the nest, com-posed entirely of round slippery stems offloating pond-weed, each stem three or fourfeet long, and quite fresh, the terminal leavesbeing green and intact. They must havebeen pulled out one by one from the bottomof the water and brought several hundredyards, as we saw none growing nearer. Theywere cleverly twined round each other, so asto make the shape oval. The nest wasalmost flat and had no lining, so the singleegg seemed to be in a very unsafe afterwards the birds buttressed up the LAST WEEK IN MAY 125 sides with some sticks and deepened it forsix more eggs that were subsequently am sorry that we had no opportunity of. Plate XXXVUI : Floating nest of coot, 2h feet long,i8 inches broad, built amongst the branches of a half-submerged willow, and standing a foot out of thewater—with the first egg laid. observing if the eggs were hatched, or whetherthe crows or rats got at them. I saw the male bird swimming about, but 126 A VISIT TO POCHARD ISLAND— he hid himself as soon as he was observed. Heresembled a moorhen in general appearance,but was larger and stouter^ with a morepointed tail and also had a dull white orflesh-coloured beak, as well as a white patchon his head in front. This mark is very dis-tinctive, and has bestowed on him the nameof Bald Coot or Baldicoot. He has anarrow white line across the wing to relievehis general blackness, but this is not wellseen from a distance ; the legs and feet aregreen. The toes are peculiar, being expandedon both sides into flat round membranes eachthe size of half a sixpence, two or three to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishern, booksubjectbirds
