526 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



many of the diving Ducks do, but these birds and all 

 the Colymbidse seem to me, when diving to avoid 

 danger, merely to put their heads under water and 

 sink out of sight and shot, and sometimes do not 

 come up again till they have got two or three hundred 

 yards away. The present species, however, after a 

 dive or two generally takes to the wing if pursued, 

 and then, unless he rises within shot of the boat, it 

 is all over with the chase. 



The food of the Great Crested Grebe consists 

 almost entirely of fish, frogs and tadpoles. Yarrell 

 says the parent birds usually feed their young with 

 young eels. It is a curious fact that in the stomach 

 of all the Grebes a quantity of feathers is almost 

 always found. How the feathers get there does not 

 appear at present to be perfectly ascertained : they 

 are not swallowed with their food, as they do not 

 appear to take any feathered prey: the most pro- 

 bable supposition seems to be that they are swal- 

 lowed by the bird accidentally when preening its 

 feathers : neither does it appear to be quite certain 

 what becomes of these feathers whether they pass 

 through, or are rejected in pellets, as is the case with 

 Hawks and some other birds that live on feathered 

 prey. 



The Great Crested Grebe is at all ages a very 

 peculiar-looking bird. In the adult the bill is 

 brownish red ; irides red ; the top of the head and 

 the long feathers making the ear-tufts are dark 



