76 BIRD HAUNTS AND NATURE MEMORIES 



are at once raised again. A favourite suggestion that it 

 is getting near nesting time is made by the male, who 

 dives for submerged weed, and bringing up a strand 

 waves it in front of his lady. Sometimes, but not often, 

 the male approaches with the ear tufts drooping, and 

 usually with depressed frill, but during the bill kissing, 

 ear tufts are erected, frill fully expanded, so that it 

 stands out, framing the curious Japanese face. 



The nest of the grebe, on most of the Cheshire meres, 

 is placed amongst reeds or other aquatic vegetation; it 

 may be in a lily bed, or where vegetation is absent, as 

 on some of the upland reservoirs, on a floating branch 

 or drifted sticks and rubbish. It usually, though not 

 invariably, is afloat, anchored by its surroundings, but 

 it is so slight a structure, rotting weeds and rubbish, that 

 it rocks on any ripple. A simple wet platform, it rises 

 and falls according to the varying height of the water; 

 though soaked and sodden, the eggs do not seem to suffer 

 from their moist setting. When the bird leaves the nest 

 it covers the eggs with a few bits of weed, and in a short 

 time their chalky white surface absorbs the green of the 

 nest and covering so that they become permanently 

 stained with blotches of green and brown. Undoubtedly 

 these nests, warmed by fermentation of the rotting weeds, 

 produce considerable heat, and it has been suggested that 

 this aids incubation; this may be true, but the birds do 

 not leave them to their fate, but sit closely, both parents 

 taking a share of incubating duties. When a sitting bird 

 is disturbed, it rises on the nest and with a few rapid 

 passes covers the eggs with some of the nesting material; 

 then, in a second, it enters the water and dives. 



When it first leaves the egg the tiny grebe is a beautiful 

 little creature, striped with brown and white down, and 

 with a small triangular patch of bare crimson skin on its 

 head. One of its first efforts is to leave its sodden home 



