72 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



doubt, Cheshire and Shropshire are the headquarters 

 of the great crested grebe, though now that the bird is 

 rapidly extending its range, other counties are well 

 populated. Thomas Pennant, a Flintshire man, describes 

 it thus at the end of the eighteenth century: " These 

 birds frequent the meres of Shropshire and Cheshire, 

 where they breed, and the great East Fen in Lincolnshire, 

 where they are called Gaunts." Montagu copied this 

 distribution, but most later writers, though referring 

 to Lincolnshire, ignored the other two areas; Cheshire, 

 to many a southerner, is still an unknown country, 

 wild and uncivilised, inhabited by country boors or, in 

 the industrial portions, by barbarous sons of toil ! Can 

 any good thing exist in Cheshire ? they ask. 



About the middle of the last century the grebes in 

 Cheshire, as elsewhere, had a tough struggle for existence; 

 they were persecuted unmercifully for their plumage. 

 How much this exploitation of the unfortunate bird for 

 its silky breast had to do with one of its names the 

 tippet grebe is uncertain. In summer it wears a frill 

 which is often described as its tippet; nevertheless the 

 " grebe fur " was used for an article of feminine attire 

 known as a tippet, and once the bird had earned the name, 

 tippet may have been transferred to its own neck adorn- 

 ment. When the price of the deceased grebe had risen 

 to about a pound Bird Protection came to the rescue and 

 accomplished much, but in Cheshire private rather than 

 public efforts saved the situation. Most of the meres on 

 which they nest are on game preserves, and the bird, 

 though not on the game list, received passive but very 

 effective protection. 



The great crested grebe, the largest of its family, is a 

 handsome but rather peculiar-looking fowl. Though a 

 bird of the water it is in no way a duck, and is more 

 nearly related to the divers. It is a little smaller and very 



