THE LITTLE GREBE OR DABCHICK. 319 



Bemersyde. Mr. W. Lockie says it is met with in con- 

 siderable numbers on Legerwood Loch, and that in winter 

 it frequents the bogs about Westruther and Spottiswoode. 

 The Mill Pond at Foulden New Mains, according to Mr. 

 Millican, is also a favourite resort. I have sometimes 

 observed it on Nabdean Mill Pond, and on the Tweed at 

 Paxton in the winter and early spring months. Mr. A. 

 Kelly, Lauder, relates that " Mr. Scott shot a pair of Little 

 .Grebes in January 1875 in St. Leonard's Cauld. When he 

 first came in sight of them they were standing on a broad 

 hemming of ice enclosing the water, but this was only 

 momentary, as both plunged into the water and reappeared 

 in the same place, and this action was repeated over and 

 over again. They were feeding, he thought, on the spawn 

 of trout. 1 He crept nearer them under cover of the branches 

 to get within shot. Perceiving that they were watched, they 

 instinctively kept in the water, only occasionally putting up 

 their beaks for air in the current the ice preventing them 

 from getting under shelter of the willows and other strong 

 herbage at the sides. Many years before that date Mr. 

 Simson, Lauder, obtained a specimen from the same 

 place." 2 Mr. Kelly adds that this bird is very uncommon 

 in his neighbourhood. The Eev. George Cook of Longfor- 

 macus has informed me that Mr. Smith of Whitchester 

 shot two examples on the Dye in 1879. Dr. Stuart relates 

 that a specimen was found dead at the side of the Whit- 

 adder, near Blanerne, after the ice broke up in December 

 1879. 3 



1 Mr. Brotherston, bird-stuffer, Kelso, writing on the effects of the severe winter 

 of 1878-79, says that the Little Grebes were found to be in good condition, and 

 that, in addition to the remains of aquatic insects and their larvae, one had a 

 quantity of salmon roe in its stomach. Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. viii. p. 538. 



2 Mr. A. Kelly, "On some of the Birds of Lauderdale." Hist. Ber. Nat. 

 Club, vol. vii. pp. 305, 306. 



s Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, vol. ix. p. 407. 



