34 EARLY SPRING : 
place I found some in the same month in 
perfect condition, and they seemed to have 
been recently built. 
Leaving the islands with the hope of soon 
revisiting them when nesting time was more 
advanced, we peered quietly over a bank 
into the water on the other side, towards 
Pochard Island. There, we saw three pairs 
of large grey birds with dark-coloured heads, 
which looked almost the size of geese ; 
they were swimming quietly about under 
the lee of the island. They were too far off 
for us to see them well, but rightly or 
wrongly we took them to be Great Crested 
Grebe. Laterin the season I had the oppor- 
tunity of watching a fine specimen of one of 
these birds here. I could not get within 
eighty yards without alarming him, but even 
without a glass I plainly saw his long sharp 
beak, his brown crest, and ruff, and piercing 
eye, and admired his fine power of diving and 
swimming whilst he fed. 
Closer in some little expert swimmers and 
divers were taking their meal, which consisted 
