248 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
When about to dive, the parent bird raises itself in the 
water, and by flapping its wings shakes the young ones 
from its back. The tiny nestlings appear ill at ease in 
the water, and follow their parent closely in order to 
regain their resting-place, which they do by scrambling 
up over the tail. On the appearance of the other parent 
with food, the young ones, in their eagerness to be fed, 
will sometimes take the water by slipping off at the 
neck of the old bird which is carrying them. Occasion- 
ally, however, the young are fed whilst on the parent’s 
back. Numbers of the young probably fall victims to 
the voracity of the pike, which attain a large size in the 
Cheshire meres, for it is a common occurrence to see the 
parents accompanied by only one or two nestlings. 
When older, the young birds spend more of their 
time in the water. They keep up an _ incessant 
querulous cry, very different from the harsh croak of 
an adult Grebe, and are noisiest when one of the 
parents approaches with a struggling fish in its beak. 
They retain traces of the curious striped nestling 
plumage until they are almost as big as their parents. 
When a captured fish is brought to the surface the 
Great Crested Grebe appears to adjust its grip before 
swallowing it, but never throws its prey into the air 
to catch it again as it falls head downwards, a trait 
so noticeable in the mode of feeding of the Cormorant 
and Shag. 
Considerable misapprehension exists as to the method 
of progression of Grebes when on land. Many of the 
earlier ornithologists asserted that the bird could not 
walk upright, and when on land shuffled along on its 
belly, pushing itself forward by its feet; and even in the 
illustrations of several modern works on Birds, Grebes 
are represented as sitting upon the tarsus or standing bolt 
