286 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



although always killed. Finally, the young has to 

 be taught to catch for himself; and at first he does 

 not appear to have any aptitude for such a task, or 

 any desire to acquire it. He is tormented with 

 hunger, and all he knows is that his parent can catch 

 fish for him, and his only desire is that she shall 

 go on catching them as fast as he can swallow them. 

 And she catches him a fish, and gives it to him, 

 but, oh mockery ! it was not really dead this time, 

 and instantly falls into the water and is lost ! Not 

 hopelessly lost, however, for down she goes like light- 

 ning, and comes up in ten seconds with it again. And 

 he takes and drops it again, and looks stupid, and 

 again she recovers and gives it to him. How many 

 hundreds of times, I wonder, must this lesson be re- 

 peated before the young grebe finds out how to keep 

 and to kill? Yet that is after all only the begin- 

 ning of his education. The main thing is that he 

 must be taught to dive after the fishes he lets fall, 

 and he appears to have no inclination, no intuitive 

 impulse, to do such a thing. A small, quite dead 

 fish must be given him carelessly, so that it shall 

 fall, and he must be taught to pick up a fallen 

 morsel from the surface; but from that first simple 

 act to the swift plunge and long' chase after and 

 capture of uninjured vigorous fishes, what an im- 

 mense distance there is! It is, however, probable 

 that, after the first reluctance of the young bird 

 has been overcome, and a habit of diving after 



