AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 285 



is unnecessary that I should go into details con- 

 cerning them. The Eared Grebe has a wide range 

 of distribution in Europe and North Africa, and has 

 been recorded as breeding so far to the north as 

 Jutland ; but Mr. Howard Saunders states that there 

 is no evidence of its having ever bred in our own 

 country. 



227. LITTLE GREBE or DABCHICK. 



Podiceps fluvkdilis. 



Although we seldom see this most amusing little 

 bird upon the Nen at Lilford during the summer 

 months, it is common enough throughout the county 

 in suitable localities, and in autumn, winter, and 

 early spring, especially in severe frosts, several pairs 

 may be seen almost every day during a riverside 

 walk from Thrapston to Thorpe, or from the latter 

 village to Oundle ; I only speak of that portion 

 of our river with which I am most intimately 

 acquainted, and have no doubt that the Dabchick 

 is equally common throughout the whole course of 

 the Nen from Northampton to the fens and the 

 open sea. I never discovered a nest of this species 

 on the Nen, probably because I never searched for it 

 during my bird's-nesting days at the right or most 

 likely time of the year for its discovery, as I have 

 excellent proof that the Dabchick breeds, at all 

 events occasionally, in the close neighbourhood of 

 Lilford, from the fact of having once met with young 

 birds unable to fly, one of them in the maw of a 

 small pike. In habits the Dabchick closely resembles 

 the other Grebes, but is often to be met with on 

 small pools and narrow brooks, where the lars^er 



