S BKITISH HIKDS. [vol. xiv. 



of egg shell both there and in the water, I searched carefully 

 in the vicinity of the nest but without result. I could neither 

 find the newly hatched young nor catch any glimpse of 

 either parent. On the next day the conditions were the 

 same, except that the eggs were slightly covered and a few 

 small feathers had been left on the nest, showing that the 

 bird had been upon it. 



The twentieth visit, on the evening of July 15th, gave me 

 an opportunity to examine the bird at close range. She 

 was on the nest and allowed me to approach, cautiously, 

 to a point twenty or thirty feet from her. She was con- 

 siderably changed in appearance. The yellowish -white tip 

 of the bill remained unaltered and the light line through the 

 lower margin of the lore was observed to still persist, but 

 the plumage of the head was much subdued, the yellow plumes 

 having been exchanged for mere inconspicuous greyish 

 streaks on the sides of the head. As I came up I could see 

 a young bird poking its head through her wing. She soon 

 left the nest with a startling rush, and swam rapidly away, 

 leaving three eggs in the nest and two tiny youngsters in the 

 water. The newly hatched downy young can both swim and 

 dive in a feeble way. As I approached them they tried to 

 escape by diving. When I held them in my hands they gave 

 utterance to a little cry not greatly different from that of 

 domestic chicks. 



On the following day, July i6th, I failed to find either the 

 parent or the young at the nest. The three remaining eggs 

 were not covered. Again on the morning of the seventeenth, 

 the nest held only the three uncovered eggs. 



The next day, July i8th, at 7.30 p.m., another egg had 

 hatched. The nest was not covered. It contained two eggs 

 and nearly all of the opened shell of the other, which last 

 circumstance was of course unusual. I heard the young bird, 

 and by following the faint sound of its voice found it in the 

 water, about six or eight feet from the nest. It was small 

 enough to have just emerged from the shell. Its bill was 

 very pink, and the naked red spot, or comb on its forehead 

 very bright, though only slightly raised above the surrounding 

 skin. The adult Grebes were not seen either on this visit or 

 on July 20th, when I looked for them early in the morning. 

 On the latter date the two eggs and the nest were cold and 

 the orphan above mentioned was dead, on the slope of the 

 nest just above the surface of the water. There was an 

 opening in the top of its skull through which its brain had 

 been removed by some small creature. This nestling had 



