LITTLE GREBE. 257 



the running and more open waters, less liable to be 

 frozen over, where in summer they are seldom seen 

 — appearing, as Mr. Lubbock puts it, " as if by magic, 

 jDopping up and down upon our rivers and small 

 streams, and the marvel is how they got there." At this 

 time the dabchick, like the water-hen, may be easily 

 caught by the hand when squatting under the overhang- 

 ing banks of streams. A favourite resort of the little 

 grebe is the drains and small rivers of fresh or brackish 

 water which meander through the broad expanses of 

 marsh bordering on the sea at Heacham, Holme, 

 Blakeney, Salthouse, &c. I am assured that they re- 

 main in these localities throughout the summer (at 

 Holme Mr. Le Strange tells me he has taken a nest), 

 but it is in the autumn and winter that they are found 

 there in the greatest numbers ; a marshman at Holme 

 told me that he has seen twenty or thirty at one time 

 on a piece of water there in severe frost, and that at 

 such times he has frequently caught them by hand. 



As the weather becomes more severe, and the water 

 is gradually covered with ice, they still cling to their 

 restricted haunt so long as any portion of it remains 

 unfrozen, and at such times many individuals may 

 occasionally be found congregated in a very small space, 

 instances of ten or twelve of these birds assembling in 

 one small swan hole not being unfi-equent, and several 

 are generally to be seen in winter in the pools of water 

 into which the river Yare expands just below Earlham, 

 Cringleford, and the Harford bridges, near Norwich, as 

 well as at many other pools along the courses of the 

 Wensum and upper Yare, which rivers appear to be 

 favourite winter resorts of these birds. When the water 

 is entirely frozen over, then their fate becomes a hard 

 one, only the sea-shore and estuaries of the tidal rivers 

 are left for them, and those that do not find their way to 

 such situations suffer great privations, and have even 

 been known, like water-hens, to consort with domestic 

 fowls (c/. " Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc," iii., 

 p. 401), while their frequent appearance in the poulterer's 

 shops tells the tale of their persecution. 



Mr. W. E. Fisher, writing in the " Zoologist " for 1843, 

 p. 247, refers to the regular appearance of little grebes 

 2k 



