DIVERS, GREBES, AND CORMORANTS. 171 



and estuaries, than to the open sea. The food 

 of this bird consists not only of fish, but small 

 crustaceans and molluscs, aquatic insects, young 

 frogs, and various vegetable fragments. Its habits 

 are very similar to those of the other Grebes ; its 

 swimming and diving powers are wonderful ; its 

 flight on occasion is rapid and strong, whilst its. 

 note is a shrill but not very loud weet. In its 

 nesting economy the Little Grebe closely resembles 

 its congeners. It quits the coast in spring, resort- 

 ing to inland pools, often of very small size, 

 making its usually floating or water -surrounded 

 nest amongst the vegetation fringing the shallows, 

 on which it deposits five or six eggs, dull white in 

 colour. The parents often dive with their young 

 from the nest to carry them out of impending 

 danger a habit common to all species in this 

 genus. 



CORMORANTS. 



The Grebes are so little in evidence to the 

 seaside naturalist that an account of them seems 

 more like a digression in our narrative, than a 

 continuation of our observations concerning the 

 bird life of the sea. We now, however, reach 

 another pelagic group, consisting of birds that 

 form an important and seldom absent feature in 

 marine ornithology. And yet, so great is the 

 adaptability of some species, the Cormorant is by 

 no means exclusively confined to the sea, has many 

 inland breeding stations, and repeatedly wanders 



