File:Birds of the water, wood and waste (1910) (14747198771).jpg

Identifier: birdsofwaterwood00guth (find matches)
Title: Birds of the water, wood & waste
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Guthrie-Smith, H. (Herbert), 1861-1940
Subjects: Birds Photography of birds
Publisher: Wellington, N. Z. : Whitcombe & Tombs
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
le or two of water. This specieslays early, and there must be many nestsin August. This season our first lot of ducklingswere marked on September 27th—a broodof three or four—the young being thenabout a fortnight old. On October 1stanother brood was seen about the sameplace. On October 8th some miles up theriver I watched for long a family of four—^ten days old, I daresay, the ducklingsshowing much white about front of throatand breast and side of face. The glassy, cool, translucent stream en-abled me to easily follow these little diversto its pebbly depths, their white mark-ings showing very distinct as they exploredthe river floor or rose with a plop to thesurface. Above water, too, they were equallyactive, skimming after flies on the surfaceand scrambling half out of water afterinsects on the damp cliffs. Again and againat a pools tail I was sure the strong water-draw would suck them down, but theywould cross it safely above the very break.Every now and again from the parents
Text Appearing After Image:
WOOD AND WASTE 25 would come the rattling note or the sibilantwhio, whio, one of the most delightfulsounds of wild nature in New Zealand. The two old birds, while the ducklingsplayed and dived and fed, floated motion-less, or paddled slowly about the calm,unruffled surface, every now and then oneof them in play making hostile feints atthe other. Above the great rock where I lay, ashining Cuckoo hawked for flies, a Warblertrilled at intervals in the tall manuka, andthe shadows of great white clouds darkenedin patches the whole country side. On October 13th I got a nest justvacated. There was still one whole egg—addled—and a dead duckling half out ofthe shell, quite undecayed, and not evenflyblown; the nest must have been tenantedwithin two or three hours of my discovery. It was situated close to the Waikahaustream, and hidden under an immenserush bush on the very edge of a sandycliff. There, cosy, warm, and dry, beneaththis natural thatch, was the hollow contain-ing the nest. 26 BI

Note About Images