LITTLE GREBE 529 
best known and most plentiful member of its Family. It 
has a wide distribution in the British Isles, and in winter 
it frequents coasts and estuaries as well as inland lakes, 
forsaking the latter when frost-bound for the open tidal 
water. It will often select for its ‘natural habitat’ orna- 
mental waters and is a comparatively unsuspicious bird, 
showing little objection to human and other traffic. I 
have often seen it from the window of a passing train, 
swimming and diving unconcernedly in a reedy pond or 
dyke, quite close to the railway embankment in company 
with Water-hens and Coots. 
Fie. 63.— LITTLE GREBE. 
Its movements in the water resemble those of other 
Grebes ; it can dive with remarkable speed, all the while 
using its wings and legs as organs of propulsion. ven the 
downy young, when just hatched, can swim and dive 
perfectly, but when danger threatens they seek the protec- 
tion of their mother’s back. 
Flight.—The flight is rapid and appears to be more 
sustained than that of the larger Grebes; when alarmed 
the bird occasionally takes wing, but even then it will 
only flutter along the surface for a short distance, alight on 
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