BY THE SIDE OF THE WATERS 



357 



stems, the dark brown head of a crested grebe is observed. 

 The rich brown tippet and earlike crest has long been 

 moulted, and will not be replaced until the mating time. 

 The bird shuffles up on to a lump 

 of matted leaves, sits bolt upright, 

 standing indeed on its 

 flat feet, and begins to _^ 

 rearrange a few ruffled 



o 



feathers. Then his 

 keen eye catches sight of us, and 

 with a quick header down into the 

 water he goes, leaving scarcely a 

 ripple behind him ; nor does he 

 reappear again within the area of 

 our pool. We are more fortunate in 

 watching a dun-headed goosander 

 which repeatedly dives, reappearing 

 perhaps with a small roach between 

 its mandibles. Fresh-water fishes 

 are as readily devoured by the 

 ' sawbill ' as marine species. From 

 the crop of one shot in the Broads 

 some years since, seventeen small 

 roach were recovered, a goodly 

 meal indeed. 



Now and again a long spell 

 of frosty weather locks up the 



Broads and rivers beneath a, thick coating of ice, when 

 the wherries are unable to leave their moorings for weeks 

 together. Then are the wild creatures sadly put to for their 

 means of subsistence, the tail-flicking moorhens sneak into 

 the neighbourhood of the farmsteads, the coots flock to the 

 tidal estuaries, where the ice breaks above the sinuous creeks 



BEARDED TITS 



