56 LONDON BIRDS 



safe in port with two newly-hatched balls of down on 

 her back, within a yard or two of the spot where her 

 raft was first built. 



These are days of disillusions. The ' bird of calm ' 

 which in Halcyon days 



' Sat brooding on the charmed wave,' 



may have been after all only a Dabchick on a poet's 

 pond. 



After a sudden sharp frost in March, the year 

 before, a Dabchick a genuinely wild bird in good 

 plumage was found in a shallow puddle in the bed 

 of the ornamental water, which had been run dry for 

 cleaning, with one foot caught in the ice. Other birds 

 have lately been teaching Londoners that there is a 

 pleasant as well as a painful side to the often-repeated 

 truth that there is no solitude more complete than 

 that of a crowded town. 



In January 1896, a Great-crested Grebe alighted 

 and remained for some time on the ornamental water. 

 The Great-crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) is one 

 of the few comparatively rare birds which have made 

 some return for the trouble taken by owners of land 

 and water to protect them by becoming rather more 

 common than once they were. It is in other respects 

 an exceptionally interesting bird. 



Many birds during the breeding season put on, some- 

 times only for a few weeks, a smarter dress than they 

 usually wear. As a rule it is the male only that wears 

 ' the nuptial plumage.' The Grebes are among the com- 



