GEEAT CRESTED GEEBE. 239 



domestic arrangements. Both sexes assume the ruff in 

 the breeding- season, and do not differ greatly from 

 each other in appearance. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 

 tells me that a great crested grebe, killed at Ranworth, 

 on the 30th December, 1884, had, immediately after 

 death, yellowish buff eyes, with a narrow inner circle of 

 white, but the next morning the iris had changed to a 

 bright red. 



The preliminary courtship is marked by the abandon- 

 ment, at least by day, of the rapid flights from one part 

 of the water to another in which the birds had hitherto 

 indulged. The engaged couple choose some suitable 

 corner or bay near a reed bed, and there pass their time 

 in close company, diving and swimming side by side — 

 or when not feeding, and the fit takes them — in wide 

 circles with many gesticulations of the neck, which is 

 at times extended for some moments upright in the air, 

 at times laid flat on the water, then suddenly raised, 

 and as suddenly lowered. Many of these movements are 

 simultaneously performed by each partner, others by 

 each alternately, the one seeming to imitate the other, 

 and the jerks are occasionally exchanged for ludicrously 

 solemn bows. Now and then a playful attack is made by 

 one bird on its mate, and in the scuffle that ensues the 

 water is thrown up so as to hide both from the onlooker, 

 who sees in place of the grebes a splash or series of 

 splashes, as though a cannon-ball had struck or glanced 

 along the surface. Their actions, and especially the last, 

 are accompanied by no little noise, for the cries of the 

 loon are loud and far-reaching ; harsh some people would 

 doubtless call them, but they are in thorough harmony 

 with 



the water lapping on the marge, 



And the long ripple washing in the reeds. 



All this is very pretty to witness, but soon the labour 

 of nest building — which, from the quantity of material 

 required, must be very considerable — occupies their 

 attention, and, if not disturbed, they will, as a rule, have 

 eggs by the first or se 3ond week in April ; some pairs, 

 however, are considerably later than this date before they 

 have laid ; it may be that these are younger birds, or 



