ORDER PODICIPEDIDIFORMES GREBES. 



253 



The Grebes. 

 Order 



Podicipedidi- 

 formes. 



themselves in the foliage on the banks. When flying, which they seldom do, 

 they go heavily, striking the water with their bill and feet. 



These birds are familiarly known on account of the use made of their 

 beautiful white breasts for muffs or the trimming of dresses, but in a wild 

 state they are not easy to observe, as they are among the 

 shiest of birds. Although the species are not very numerous, 

 there is scarcely a portion of the globe which grebes do nob 

 inhabit. The feet are lobed, and there is never any visible 

 tail, the broad rectrices of other birds being represented 

 in the grebes by a tuft of downy plumes. 



The Sclavonian Grebe is one of the most beautiful of the order, and is an in- 

 habitant of the northern portions of both hemispheres. It is not an unfrequent 

 visitor to Great Britain in winter. The great-crested grebe 

 (Podicipes cristatus) is almost cosmopolitan in its range, and is The Sclavonian 

 the largest of the British species. It is still to be found nesting Grebe (Podicipes 

 on some of the Norfolk broads and inland lakes of England, auritus). 

 building, like all grebes, a nest of the dampest description, 

 composed of weeds and rushes. The eggs are at first white, but become 

 stained in a very short time, as the bird generally 

 covers them up with weeds on leaving the nest. 

 All the grebes are splendid divers, and even the 

 little nestlings take to the water soon after they are 

 hatched, a.nd escape either by diving or by hiding 

 themselves in the weeds and rushes. The nestlings 

 are very pretty little creatures, covered with soft 

 down of a zebra-like pattern in streaks of white and 

 black or brown. 



There are not many genera of the grebes, most of 

 the species belonging to the genus Podicipes, but in 

 America the thick-billed grebe belongs to a distinct 

 genus, Podilymbus, while on Lake Titicaca, in 

 Bolivia, is found a large form, Centropelma, which 

 has such small wings that it is apparently incapable 

 of flight. 



The dabchick of our English waters (Tachybaptes 

 flumatilis) is one of the smallest grebes, and is dis- 

 tributed over the greater part of the Palsearctie region, but is replaced by an 

 allied species in Africa (T. capensis], and in India by 7'. albipennis. 



In the summer the dabchick frequents rivers, lakes, and even ponds 

 and small sheets of water, where it builds a nest of weeds, which are 

 always in a moist condition, and the nest always resembles a small heap of 

 refuse more than anything else. A dabchick is a pretty object to watch, but 

 it is so shy a bird that a near approach is impossible, and it is only at a dis- 

 tance that they can be seen swimming about on the water. On the first sign 

 of danger, it disappears like magic, and comes to the surface again for a 

 second, only to dive again out of sight on the instant. If one of them be sur- 

 prised in the open, it will dive immediately, and if there be a bed of reeds or 

 other shelter, it makes for them under the water, and one never knows at what 

 distance its head will reappear. Twenty and thirty yards is by no means an 

 uncommon dive for a dabchick to make, and it uses its lobed feet as propellers 

 and steerers, not making much use of its wings, which are held close to the 

 body, the stumpy and soft tail being of no sort of use to it as a steering apparatus. 



Fig, is. THE SCLAVONIAN 

 GREBE (Podicipes auritus). 



