410 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



William Hamilton of London that his brother met with the bird 

 in the neighbourhood of Scuir Ouran in Inverness-shire at even 

 a greater height above the sea level. In the neighbourhood of 

 Glasgow it is found nesting in Fossil Marsh, and also at Hoggan- 

 field Loch. Sixteen nests were found in the first-mentioned 

 locality in the breeding season of 1868 many of them by my 

 friends Messrs W. Lorrain and J. S. Dixon, whose persevering skill 

 has been the means of revealing the comparative numbers of birds 

 breeding in that now rapidly-decreasing marsh. A number of 

 eggs taken by these gentlemen is now before me: they are all 

 much stained, though they were quite fresh when blown a circum- 

 stance arising from the bird's habit of covering its eggs with damp 

 weeds on leaving the nest. Out of the sixteen nests I have men- 

 tioned, only one was found with its contents uncovered, all the 

 others being heaped over with wet plants, which had apparently 

 been pulled out of the water by the grebes only a short time 

 before they were discovered.* 



I have many times found the Little Grebe frequenting salt 

 water pools among the rocks by the sea shore. I recollect meeting 

 with one on the coast near Dunbar in a little sheet of water sur- 

 rounded by rocks which were profusely fringed with Corallina 

 officinalis, and seeing the bird make repeated, though ineffectual, 

 attempts to conceal itself in a tuft of coralline. It made no effort to 

 escape by flight, but seemed rather to trust to its instinctive powers 

 of deception. Even when fired at, instead of rising on wing, it 

 merely shifted from one side of the pool to the other till it became 

 exhausted, and could not dive with the same rapidity. In ordinary 

 circumstances, when fairly awakened to a sense of its danger, the 

 Little Grebe, like all its family relations, will defy the quickest 

 shot in the water. 



In one or two of the outer islands, such as North Uist and 

 Benbecula, the Little Grebe disappears for a time in winter from 

 the inland lakes, and is then found in the vicinity of the islets in 

 the sounds which separate these islands. It is curious to speculate 

 on the probability of these birds remaining constantly in such 

 haunts as the mountain tarns on the summit of hills within the 



* The plant used by these birds in nest-building, and also for covering the 

 eggs, in Fossil Marsh, is one which has of late years become very abundant 

 there, namely, Anacharis Canadensis. It is also spreading to a great extent in 

 some of our canals and private ponds, where it is looked upon as a nuisance. 



