1 62 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



two Grebes out in the open about seventy-five or eighty yards 

 off ; they sat low in the water, and swam about at a great 

 pace. The male would occasionally swim round and round 

 his mate, ducking his head and bobbing it up and down, 

 every now and then striking the water with a single stroke 

 of his wings ; the female, however, paid but little attention 

 to his blandishments, as her eye was fixed on the vicinity of 

 the nest. They swam about in the same spot for nearly 

 half an hour, sometimes diving for pieces of green weed, 

 which they tore to pieces on the surface, and sometimes 

 toying with each other. 



Just as my patience was becoming exhausted, the female 

 swam closer in shore, and, after looking cautiously about, 

 she dived. I kept my eyes glued on the nest. Suddenly 

 she appeared about three feet from the nest, but must have 

 caught sight of me, as she dived almost immediately and 

 reappeared about forty yards out. I noiselessly changed 

 my position, getting farther behind the clump of reeds. In 

 about fifteen minutes she suddenly appeared again beside 

 the nest, and, after a hurried look round, got on to it and 

 carefully uncovered the eggs, arranging all the weeds on the 

 nest before she finally turned the eggs with her bill and 

 settled herself on them. The male appeared almost im- 

 mediately about six feet from the nest, on the side nearest 

 me, with a young water lily leaf which had not yet unrolled 

 itself; this he deposited on the side of the nest, the female 

 giving it two or three playful dabs with her bill. During 

 the short time that the male was at the nest, he kept up a 

 sort of crooning noise, difficult to describe on paper, but 

 resembling somewhat the syllables " Krrraw-quaw-quaw, 

 krrraw-quaw-quaw," repeated very slowly over and over 

 again, and continually bobbed his head up and down. 

 After he dived away the female composed herself to rest 

 and buried her head among her feathers. 



By this time I was getting very cold and stiff, as I had 

 been standing there about two hours, over my knees in water, 

 without waders. Keeping my eye on the sitting bird, I 

 made a slight movement ; she jumped up and hurriedly 

 covered up the eggs with some of the weeds on the nest, 

 remaining bolt upright with her head erect and listening 



