68 Mr. R. M. Christy, Natural History Notes.
was placed at the height of eleven feet above the ground in
a hollow formed by the branching out of the bough of a large
elm-tree, standing beside a muddy stream in Lord Bray-
brooke's Park at Audley End. Thinking this a favourable
opportunity to observe the manner in which the young
would come down, I made many visits to the nest, keeping
a sharp look-out for the hatching of the eggs, and fre-
quently saw the old bird leave the nest, although on the
first occasion she sat very close, and only left when I
accidentally struck the tree with my stick, after having
been some minutes below it. The nest was not over the
water by five or six feet, and was just visible from the
ground. I first discovered it on the 12th instant, and
visiting it about seven o'clock on the evening of the 18th,
I found that there were five young hatched in the nest and
two rotten eggs. I had no sooner got up than one young
one, apparently in a fright, rushed to the edge of the nest,
took a header, and perished at the bottom of the tree. I
directly went home and, returning with a pair of field-
glasses, I secreted myself as near to the nest as possible,
and watched. One old bird very soon appeared and swam
about just below the tree, making a chuckling noise, seem-
ingly as a signal, for the other bird was then seen. Both
continued for some time alternately to swim in the stream and
walk about at the foot of the tree as though they had nothing
particular to do. During all this while the four young left
had been keeping up an incessant chirping, and presently
I saw something fall, which I had no doubt was one of
them. At first the old birds did not appear to notice this;
but soon one went to the place, and I could just see the
white of its tail above the edge of a hollow in the ground,
in which it seemed to be doing something. Having thus
watched until it began to get dark, I went up to the tree,
and at the bottom found the young one I had seen
fall, lying nearly dead; those left in the nest had
stopped squealing and appeared to be so weak that
they were unable to hold up their heads. I therefore
brought one down carefully as an experiment, and set it
beside the water, the old birds clucking loudly at