8
Dominga
and Domingi’s eggs change colour
Teetiri needed to keep walking to get
some energy and blood circulation back into the body. It was tough, sitting
there, on that open nest, in the cold of the night, waiting, waiting, and
waiting for what seemed to be forever. Well, it did definitely seem like
forever. What does a lapwing have to do at night, completely alone on an open
nest? At least Dominga and Domingi sat close to each other, while Domingi sat
on the eggs at her nest. Once they had had a big fight, and all the birds came
to know about it. Domingi had laid four eggs, all alike. And one fine day,
Dominga had come to the nest and saw that one of the eggs had changed it’s
colour. Domingi insisted that just awhile ago, all the four eggs had been of
one colour. Then how could one egg change colour? Dominga kept asking.
Dominga - the male magpie robin kept arguing with Domingi
[Photograph - Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal]
They had kept arguing and arguing. The
noise had become very painful, remembered Teetiri. Dominga had gone and
complained about it to Kotwal, to Chimini and to Teetiraa also. That must have
been very humiliating to Dominga, thought Teetiri, for she knew that Dominga
and Teetiraa did not like each other very much. Teetiraa had replied rather
very rudely and had tried to insult Dominga until Teetiri had told him to keep
quiet. This was a totally different problem from theirs, thought Teetiri. The
lapwings had lost their eggs, while the magpie-robins had no idea of what had
happened to one of their eggs. And what more, but to try to understand what they
could do with the different coloured egg that was still present in the nest.
Domingi - the female Magpie Robin was very upset
Dominga had kept fighting with her about the missing egg
[Photograph - Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal]
Dominga had kept on arguing. He had
kept searching for other birds to tell his sorrowful story. Domingi on the
other hand had continued to sit at her nest, knowing that her responsibility
was towards protecting her eggs. She had not dared to leave her nest, for fear
that another egg may change colour. What if the eggs had not been changed at
all? What if, one of her eggs had indeed changed colour by itself? Did the two
of them, Domingi and Dominga, know all that there was to know about eggs and
their colour? How could she just leave all her eggs at her nest and fly away
just because one of the eggs had changed colour? Dominga did not listen to any
of these questions. He was angry and very certain that Domingi had given away
one of their eggs and brought one from some other bird’s nest.
