DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 171 
and estuaries, than to the open sea. The food 
of this bird consists not only of fish, but small 
crustaceans and molluscs, aquatic insects, young 
frogs, and various vegetable fragments. Its habits 
are very similar to those of the other Grebes ; its 
swimming and diving powers are wonderful; its 
flight on occasion is rapid and strong, whilst its 
note is a shrill but not very loud wee¢. In its 
nesting economy the Little Grebe closely resembles 
its congeners. It quits the coast in spring, resort- 
ing to inland pools, often of very small size, 
making its usually floating or water-surrounded 
nest amongst the vegetation fringing the shallows, 
on which it deposits five or six eggs, dull white in 
colour. The parents often dive with their young 
from the nest to carry them out of impending 
danger—a habit common to all species in this 
genus. 
CORMORANTS. 
The Grebes are so little in evidence to the 
seaside naturalist that an account of them seems 
more like a digression in our narrative, than a 
continuation of our observations concerning the 
bird life of the sea. We now, however, reach 
another pelagic group, consisting of birds that 
form an important and seldom absent feature in 
marine ornithology. And yet, so great is the 
adaptability of some species, the Cormorant is by 
no means exclusively confined to the sea, has many 
inland breeding stations, and repeatedly wanders 
