PODICIPEDID.li. 



725 



THE LITTLE GREBE. 



PoDiciPES FLUviATiLis (Tunstall). 



This species — familiarly known as the Dabchick — is resident and 

 generally distributed on the reedy streams, lakes and ponds of 

 England ; it may even be found nesting on some of the ornamental 

 waters of London, notably in St. James's Park. In Scotland it is 

 less plentiful, though found northward to the Shetlands, and west- 

 ward it nests in the Outer Hebrides, while it breeds up to an 

 elevation of 2,000 feet or even more in the Highlands; it is how- 

 ever more frequently noticed in winter, when there is less chance of 

 concealment and the freezing of the inland waters drives it to the 

 coast. In Ireland it is common, and breeds in every county. 



The Little Grebe is seldom met with in the Faeroes and has not 

 yet been recorded from Iceland ; while in Norway its range seldom 

 extends beyond lat. 62°. On both sides of the Baltic it is rare, even 

 in summer ; but it is of tolerably general distribution over the rest 

 of the Continent, and is resident in the south ; as it is in temperate 

 Asia as far east as Japan, and also in North Africa. Very closely- 

 allied forms are its representatives in South Africa, Madagascar, 

 Southern Asia, the Malay archipelago, Northern Australia, New 

 Zealand, and North America. 



The nest — which is somewhat large for the size of the bird — is 

 composed of and moored to aquatic plants, or shrubs ; and in it 



