DOGGED LITTLE GREBES 285 



succeeded in bringing off her young; and once out 

 of their shells they were safe. But by-and-by the 

 little duckling-like sound was heard at another point, 

 and then at another ; and this continued in Sep- 

 tember, until, by the middle of that month, you 

 could walk miles along the river, and before you left 

 the sound of one little brood hungrily crying to be 

 fed behind you, the little peep-peep of another brood 

 would begin to be heard in advance of you. 



Often enough it is "dogged as does it" in bird as 

 well as in human affairs, and never had birds more 

 deserved to succeed than these dogged little grebes. 

 I doubt if a single pair failed to bring out at least 

 a couple of young by the end of September. And 

 at that date you could see young birds apparently 

 just out of the shell, while those that had been 

 hatched in August were full grown. 



About the habits of the little grebe, as about those 

 of the moor-hen, many curious and entertaining things 

 have been written ; but what amused me most in these 

 birds, when I watched them in late September on 

 the Itchen, was the skilful way in which the parent 

 bird taught her grown-up young ones to fish. At 

 an early period the fishes given to the downy young 

 are very small, and are always well bruised in the 

 beak before the young bird is allowed to take it, 

 however eager he may be to seize it. Afterwards, 

 when the young are more grown, the size of the 

 fishes is increased, and they are less and less bruised, 



