Ornithological and Other Oddities 



above and silver - white below, and set off by 

 the little rose-pink bill and a red patch on the 

 crown. This colouring is not in any way pro- 

 tective, unlike that of young game-birds, but 

 the young grebes are so well looked after by 

 their parents that such devices seem hardly 

 necessary in their case. One is tempted to 

 suppose that, just as male birds are believed 

 to have developed beauty in response to the 

 aesthetic tastes of their mates, so some chicks 

 may have been rendered beautiful to enhance 

 their parents' affection for them. Theorising 

 apart, however, these dabchicks were most 

 remarkably good parents. 



Their offspring, of which four was the largest 

 and two the smallest number which I observed, 

 are at first disinclined to take to the water, 

 although they can swim at once. They are 

 also not active on land, or, rather, on the 

 squashy pad of a nest, which is all the land 

 they know, for except on one occasion, to be 

 mentioned hereafter, I never saw a young bird 

 come ashore. For the first week they cannot 

 stand, but crawl on all fours, using the wings 

 as forelegs, and looking like a great beetle. 

 In this way they would leave the nest on 

 sight of me, although the old birds cared little 

 or nothing for my presence. Then, the parent 



being at hand, the little creature would swim 



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