NEW SOUTH WALES 93 



BROAD DISTRIBUTION 



The Tippet Grebe is found in Europe and Asia, 

 and it is the same species as found in Australia, 

 Tasmania and New Zealand (Map 38). 



It is rather wonderful that such a particularly- 

 poor flier should have got across such isolated 

 parts. 



The head display is seasonal and both sexes 

 enjoy it, following up the marriage custom of long 

 ago. After this follows the nesting, and the birds 

 hold their necki upright to present the appearance 

 of a stick in the water. If a flood occurs the nest 

 is built upwards and the eggs raised. If the nest 

 cannot be quickly built up the eggs fail. When 

 the flood disappears the addition to the nest is 

 reduced and flattened out. The young swim 

 immediately on leaving the eggs. The striped 

 plumage shows the ancestral colour scheme. 



A smaller grebe, the Black-throated species, is 

 found as far off the mainland as New Caledonia 

 and Java. It has lobed feet and travels in the 

 water freely. The nests are on a swamp and the 

 birds while sitting on the eggs almost cover them- 

 selves with the water-weeds of the floating nest. 

 During the day the sun does the work of incubating 

 and the birds at night. I have seen as many as 

 seventeen nests on one small weedy swamp, in all 

 of which the eggs were hidden by a rough roof of 

 water weeds. 



