first found the nest destroyed that I saw for the first time this third bird. That some drama had taken place between the 8th and the 17th I cannot help suspecting, and I regret now extremely that I was unable to watch during the intervening days. However, what seems most probable is that the nest was plundered and destroyed by someone,[1] that the two birds then swam about all day on the lake, and that an unpaired male, seeing a female whom he thought might possibly be also free, approached her with honourable intentions, for which she never forgave him.[2]
May 21st.—Arrive at 6 a.m. The two birds are swimming together, and I at once notice a new nest in the same place as the other, which has been built since yesterday. It looks, through the glasses, as large and substantial as was the first. The birds swim about together as usual, preening themselves, &c.; but in about ten minutes the male, with a little turn towards the female, as though to ask her concurrence, starts towards the nest, swimming straight on without pausing, in a purposive manner. Soon he dives, and, coming up with weeds, continues towards it, and works at it for some few minutes without being joined by the female; so that I begin to think the male alone builds the nest. After a time, however, the female comes, and at once shows herself the more efficient of the two (though the male is also very efficient), diving more frequently, and bringing up larger masses of weed. Both birds now work together quickly and systematically, generally diving for each load of material, but sometimes—and especially the female—collecting it from the surface near the bank. They must have carried perhaps a dozen cargoes between them before I take out my watch. It is then 6.20, and in the next ten minutes they bring, together, twenty-five cargoes. The female then—at 6.30—springs upon the nest, and lies all along it in the way I have described, wishing evidently to receive the male. He, however, does not respond. She soon comes off again (in less than a minute), and the building continues with the greatest activity, as before. "Fervet opus," and by
- ↑ The shepherd-boy, I may say, was half-witted, but this would leave him quite clever enough for the act.
- ↑ I have no doubt now that the bird I first saw by the nest was the male of the original pair, that the female going far afield—as she has often done—was courted by another male, and that this other one's remaining afterwards near the nest was mere chance.
