CHAPTER VII 



Dabchicks Great Crested Grebes Teal Falcons "Vermin" A brilliant 

 meteor Buzzards Kestrels. 



SOME Dabchicks, or Little Grebes here known as Gwyach- 

 Fach, or WU-y-Wawch may generally be seen diving about 

 the margins of Bala Lake in autumn and winter. In spring 

 they betake themselves to any of the little peaty tarns on 

 the moors that furnish enough of coarse herbage to conceal 

 their rude nests. It is in water about knee deep, amongst 

 thick growths of bog bean, equisetum, and the like, that 

 they delight to raise the shallow-topped, always water- 

 logged mass of weeds that serves them as a nursery, and of 

 all conspicuous nests, probably none so frequently deceives 

 the eye of the casual birds'-nester. The Grebe is always 

 careful to cover her eggs before leaving them, and the nest 

 then looks so exactly like a bunch of scarcely floating weed 

 that anyone unacquainted with the habits of the bird will 

 almost inevitably pass it by. Happening to be passing a 

 small mountain tarn one day in May, I espied the nest 

 photographed below, at no great distance from the shore, 

 and remarked to my companion, an intelligent Welsh 

 keeper, that it was an ideal place for a Wil-y-Wawch's nest. 

 He had never seen a grebe's nest, and was unaware that the 

 bird bred on his beat, so sitting down on the heather I sent 

 him to make an examination of the pool. Wading amongst 

 the vegetation it was not long before he discovered a Water- 

 Hen's nest, but though he passed quite close to the other, and 

 I believe actually poked it with his stick, his suspicions were 

 not aroused, and presently he returned to report that there 

 was no other nest there. Of course, the Grebes themselves 

 were never seen during his examination, and he would 



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