148 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



find it saves trouble to flop along on their 

 stomachs, rising a little and throwing them- 

 selves forward with their feet. The divers 

 often have to go a yard or two in this way, 

 for they make their nests on shore, though 

 quite close to the water's edge ; the nest is only 

 a few scraps of stalks, etc., that may be found 

 handy. Grebes make a good-sized nest, but 

 theirs is very often not on shore at all, but on 

 water-plants, or low-hanging boughs, or even 

 floating in the water itself ; and the nest is 

 always wet, for the birds build it of sodden 

 weeds and rubbish which they fish up from 

 the bottom, and cover the eggs over with 

 some of this wet bedding whenever they leave 

 them. For this reason, though grebes' eggs 

 ought to be white, you do not often find them 

 so after they have been sat upon for a little, 

 as they get stained to various shades of buff 

 by the juices of the weed. As I have said 

 before, grebes carry their young ones about 

 on their backs, although the little birds can 

 swim from the first ; but as far as I ever saw, 

 young dabchicks, at any rate, cannot dive for 

 a few days, and young divers do not seem 

 to be so active as young ducks. Grebes and 



