260 BIRDS OF NOKFOLK. 



touching terra firma.''^* On the 30th October, 1834, 

 Salmon writes in his diary, " Saw some little grebes 

 flying, being the first time I ever saw any upon the 

 wing. They appeared to fly very sharp and strong." 

 Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., tells me that on the 3rd Sep- 

 tember, 1871, he saw a dabchick with a fish in its bill 

 fly a few yards when chased by another bird of the same 

 species. 



In March the little grebes resort to their breeding 

 stations, and are then only seen in pairs, but they are 

 still somewhat gregarious, and in a favourable locality 

 more than one pair may often be found nesting at 

 short distances from each other. The nest is constructed, 

 like those of the other grebes, of a large quantity of dead 

 vegetable matter, built up from the bottom, in rather 

 shallow water, and generally somewhat concealed by the 

 coarse water- weeds growing at the edge of the pond, but 

 I have seen them in a small piece of water close by a 

 much frequented road, and perfectly bare of cover. In 

 the "• Zoologist " for 1869 (p. 1803) I gave a description 

 of the nests as observed at Scoulton, where they formerly 

 nested. The eggs are usually four to six in number. Mr. 

 Salmon, however, mentions in his diary finding a nest 

 of the little grebe, at Stanford, on the 27th May, 1837, 

 containing seven eggs ; they are laid about the middle 

 of April, but I have met with fresh eggs late in 

 June, and Mr. Norgate tells me of a nest at Brandon 

 containing two fresh eggs on the 29th July. When 

 first laid the eggs are pure white, soon to become 

 stained by their wet bed, they are much more care- 

 fully covered than those of the great crested grebe ; the 

 nest is, however, if possible, even wetter and more 

 uncomfortable in appearance than that of the last- 

 named species, and in some instances which I have seen 



* Mr. Cordeaux thus describes tlie flight of a little grebe which 

 was brought to him alive at Great Cotes (Lincolnshire), and which 

 he liberated the next day : — "The little bird went off at once in a 

 direct line, flying along the surface of the water, its wings moving 

 rapidly, and its feet at the same time working alternately like 

 paddles, the tip of each foot catching the water at every stroke — 

 exactly the same motions as it would have used in diving. It is 

 seldom we have an opportunity of seeing the little grebe fly." 



