THE LITTLE GEEBE 



(Podiceps minor) 



WHEN wandering along the banks of the sluggish streams, 

 where the water-side is fringed with tall reeds, coarse sedgy 

 grass and flags, we often see a little dark brown bird swimming 

 quietly about, or catch a momentary glimpse of it as it dives 

 with great rapidity and pursues its way under water to a 

 hiding-place amongst the vegetation. This curious bird is 

 the Little Grebe. It is very skulking in its habits and often 

 overlooked. It prefers to frequent small ponds and quiet 

 pools in the corners of fields, and may often be seen in the 

 long narrow reaches of stagnant water at the bottom of 

 railway embankments, especially if there are plenty of reeds 

 and bulrushes to afford it the shelter which its retiring 

 nature needs. In many of its habits it closely resembles the 

 Moorhen. Like that bird it is a resident in this country, and 

 remains closely attached to its little pond right through 

 the year, unless a long -continued frost seals its feeding- 

 grounds and compels it to wander away in quest of more 

 suitable haunts. I have known it then desert the inland 

 districts altogether and seek the brackish waters near the 

 coast, frequenting the drains and weedy backwaters. On 

 one occasion I met with several of these little birds on a 

 swift flowing stream, far away from their accustomed haunt, 

 which was frozen. At first I mistook them for Dippers, in 

 the dusk of the wintery afternoon, but easily identified them 



