424 THE GREBES 



horizontal pose and the calling. These alternate movements were 

 several times repeated. At last the male saw her, erected his neck 

 vertically as if to take a good look at her, then dived. At once she 

 changed her whole demeanour, half raising her wings, drawing her 

 head back, erected both "ears" and ruff. In this position the 

 white of the base of the neck and of the marginal coverts and second- 

 aries showed conspicuously. And in this attitude she awaited his 

 appearance from the depths, swinging excitedly from side to side. 

 Suddenly he appeared, and, as Mr. Huxley remarks after a most 

 amazing fashion, "he seemed to grow" out of the water. First 

 appeared his head, with ears and ruff extended, and beak pointing 

 downwards, then his neck, and finally the body, till only the 

 extreme tail-end remained in the water, so that he looked rather like 

 a penguin than a grebe ! All the while the bird was turning, so to 

 speak, on his long axis till he gradually faced his mate. A moment 

 later both had subsided into normal attitude, but at once commenced 

 to shake their heads at one another. Speedily, however, they drifted 

 apart, and commenced to feed as if nothing had happened. 



But these strange antics are only the preliminaries to still stranger. 

 For later a pair of birds, occasionally engaging in preening themselves 

 and fishing, suddenly approach one another and begin head-shaking, 

 raising the wings, and revolving as we have already described, 

 each as it were striving to outdo the other. Then the ears, till now 

 erect, were thrust out laterally, and the ruff was still further 

 erected, till ears and ruff formed a common disc. Then the hen 

 dived, a moment later the cock followed. A quarter of a minute 

 later she appeared again, and a second or two later she was followed 

 by the male, who reappeared some five-and-twenty yards off. Each 

 was crouching low over the water, and each bore in its beak a tuft of 

 weed. So soon as they sighted one another, each made for the other 

 at a great pace. When about a yard apart both sprang up out 

 of the water till they assumed the penguin position, save that the 

 beak was not depressed, but maintained a horizontal position, holding 



