Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/197

Rh 7 o'clock forty-nine more cargoes—thus making seventy-four within forty minutes—have been brought by the two birds.

The male now swims to the bank, and stands up upon the sedge and mud at the extreme edge of the water. After standing a moment or two he sits, but soon again rises, then sits and seems resting. Afterwards he again stands and preens himself a little. The female meanwhile continues to work by herself, and brings ten more cargoes to the nest before desisting. This would be towards 7.30, for there has been some pause after 7, and afterwards she has not worked so quickly, besides being alone. During the greater portion of this time the male, who has re-entered the water, has also been working, but, instead of helping the female as before, he is now carrying weeds to the bank where he has been standing and sitting. He swims out each time some little distance, and dives for them exactly as in building the nest. By 7.30 he has brought twenty-seven cargoes thus to the bank, arranging each one with his bill as at the nest. Then—at 7.30—he stands up exactly where he has placed the weeds—upon them, that is to say—having evidently been making a platform with them for this purpose. He shortly again takes the water, brings one more weed-load, and then swims away, joining, after a time, the female, who has by this time also desisted, and both birds now float idly on the water. I now walk along the bank to the nest, which I find to be twenty-three paces beyond the old one, and at another twenty-three paces beyond the new nest I find the little platform or foothold of weeds which the male bird has made. This is adjoining to and just on the extreme edge of the bank, where it is hardly above the water and more composed of sedge than soil. The nest is a massive structure, and seems to be anchored and kept in place by being woven, under water, in the growing weeds of which, uprooted, it is formed. Several long and water-logged sticks are also fixed amidst it by one end, the other end sinking down amidst the mud and weeds; so that they too help to hold it fast. I had several times seen the female, but not the male, placing and struggling with these sticks. One has, I may say, often to scribble very fast in order to keep up with the birds, and so must leave a few things to be added.

Now sticks, being usually pieces of floating spar from wrecks,