GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 33 1 



Family PODICIPEDID^. Genus Podiceps. 



GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 



Podiceps cristatus {Linnceus). 

 Single Brooded. Laying season, April, May, and June. 



British breeding area : The Great Crested Grebe 

 is by far the most common in England and Wales, only 

 breeding in one or two localities in Ireland, and even 

 much more sparingly still in the south of Scotland. Its 

 principal breeding-places in England are the broads of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, and on suitable waters in Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Cheshire, Notts, Shropshire, Warwickshire, 

 Oxfordshire, Bucks, and Hertfordshire. It breeds on the 

 larger lakes of Wales, notably in Breconshire. 



Breeding habits: The Great Crested Grebe is a 

 resident in our islands, but more widely dispersed in 

 winter than in summer. Its breeding-haunts are the 

 more extensive sheets of still water, the bird seldom or 

 never frequenting such small pools as so often and 

 generally content the Little Grebe. The bird is more 

 or less gregarious during the breeding season, numbers 

 of nests often being made within a small area, and their 

 owners swimming in company all the summer through. 

 The size of the colony of course entirely depends on the 

 suitability of the waters and the abundance or rarity of 

 birds in the vicinity. I am of opinion that this Grebe 

 pairs for life, and yearly resorts to certain favoured 

 places to breed. Early in spring, generally in March, 

 the birds appear in their accustomed nesting-places, 

 swimming in pairs, the male occasionally gambolling 

 with and chasing the female, and both frequently 

 engaging in various grotesque antics as preliminary to 

 the season of more important co.urtship. The nest is 



