in. THE DABCHICKS. I 2 3 



of them into my class of dabchicks, only those 

 which are literally dabblers in habit, and 

 chickens in size. And of the Grebes, there- 

 fore, only the one commonly known as the 

 Dabchick, the * Little Grebe,' * Col3^mbus 

 Minutus ' (Minute Diver), of Linnaeus. A 

 summary word or two, first, respecting the 

 Grebe family, will be useful. 



102. Grebe, properly, I suppose. Grebe, 

 from the French, is not in Johnson, nor do 

 any of my books tell me what it means. I 

 retain it, however, as being short, not ugly, 

 and well established in two languages. We 

 may think of it as formed from gre, and 

 meaning 'a nice bird.' The specialities of the 

 whole class, easily remembered, are, first, that 

 they have chesnut-leaf feet ; secondl}^, that 

 their legs are serrated behind with a double 

 row of notches — (why ?) ; thirdly, that they 

 have no tails ; fourthly, that they have, most 

 of them, very fine and very comic crests, tufts, 

 tippets, and other variously appHed appen- 

 dages to their heads and chins, so that some 

 are called 'crested,' some 'eared/ some ' tip- 

 peted,' and so on; but the least of them, our 

 proper Dabchick, displays no absurdity of this 



