214 BRITISH BIRDS' EGGS. 



land. It is common in our island, frequenting lakes, ponds, 

 and rivers bordered by reeds and aquatic plants. It swims 

 and dives with the greatest facility, feeding probably under 

 water, but also finding a portion of its food upon land, in 

 meadows adjacent to the water, to which it resorts in the 

 early morning. In winter, when the fresh-water ponds and 

 lakes are frozen over, numbers of these birds may be found 

 in saline marshes, and by the arms and inlets of the sea. 

 The nest is a somewhat rude structure, composed of grass, 

 flags, and other herbage, and placed among reeds by the 

 water-side, or even rising from out the water to such a 

 height as to preserve it, under ordinary circumstances, dry, 

 and secure from inundation. Occasionally however, when 

 thus situated, it is borne from its moorings, and it is re- 

 corded that upon one occasion the bird continued to sit 

 upon her eggs in one of these drifting nests until they were 

 hatched, and afterwards succeeded in rearing her brood. 

 The eggs number from seven to ten, and are scarcely less 

 than those of the domestic fowl ; they are of a stone ground- 

 colour, thickly sprinkled over their entire surface with mi- 

 nute specks and larger spots of purple-brown approaching 

 to black. 



