PYGOPODES. ( 318 ) PODICIPEDID/E. 



THE LITTLE GREBE OR DABCHICK. 



DIPPER, DIVER, DIEDAPPER, DIVEDAPPER, DOUCKER, LITTLE 

 DOUCKER, BOMETIE, MITHER O' THE HAWKINS. 



Podiceps fluviatilis. 

 Clje 2Dippec.^ 



upon this promise did he raise his chin, 

 Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave, 

 Who, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in. 



Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis. 



The Little Grebe is a permanent resident in the county, 

 being found in spring, summer, and autumn on the lakes 

 and ponds where it breeds ; and in winter on rivers and 

 along the sea -coast when its other haunts are covered 

 with ice. 



It is a very expert diver,^ and its habits are lively and 

 engaging, especially during the nesting season, when the 

 young may be seen floating about on the surface of the 

 water, their parents coming up from beneath at short inter- 

 vals to feed them. Mr. Hardy notes that it arrived at 

 Townhead Pond, where it breeds, on the 8 th of April 

 1882,^ and that it leaves that resort in the autumn. Mr. 

 John Thomson wrote to me on the 3rd of May 1886 that 

 it nests regularly at Mertoun, and at Hullidean Mill Pond, 



1 Mr. W. Lockie, Spottiswoode, gives this as the local name of the bird in that 

 locality. 



■- Mr. Black, farmer at Girrick, in the parish of Nenthorn, tells me that he has 

 frequently shot at this Grebe on the Eden, but without success, as the bird always 

 dived before the charge reached it. 



3 Mr. W. Evans, Edinburgh, has informed me that he saw the Little Grebe on 

 To^vnhead Pond on the 22nd of April 1886. 



