38 [ Vol. xxxix. 
May 19th a bird—I think, a male—brought to the surface 
what looked like a piece of matted alga, and swimming up 
- toits mate proffered the morsel, an action probably connected 
with courtship, whilst on May the 21st, D. saw two of the 
birds ‘stand up in the water on their tails, facing one 
another and shaking and bowing their heads,’ a performance 
obviously analogous to the ‘ penguin-dance’ of the Great 
Crested Grebe described by Mr. Huxley. 
“The paired birds usually kept close together, but some- © 
times when fishing they became separated and would then 
call to one another with a plaintive pee-eep, a note which 
Naumann (Nat. Vog. Deutschl. vol. ix. pp. 768-784, 1838) 
renders beeb. That author describes as bidder, vidder, 
vidder, vidder, another note which is very like the rippling 
ery of the Dabchick, though lacking perhaps something of 
its trill. In Wales I have heard a harsh creaking note 
strongly reminiscent of the call of the Partridge, and 
probably the analogue of the groaning croak which the 
Great Crested Grebe utters in the spring. The alarm-note 
resembles the whit of the Dabchick, but it is neither so loud 
nor so sharp. The hunger-cry of the young, uttered 
incessantly as they follow the old birds for food, is similar 
in general character to that of the Great Crested Grebe, 
which Mr. W. P. Pycraft (‘The British Bird Book,’ vol. iv. 
p- 427) aptly renders as pee-a, pee-a, pee-a, and of the Dab- 
chick, but is not quite like either. The difference, although 
difficult to express in words, was apparent enough when the 
young of all three species were calling at once in close 
proximity. The hunger-cry of the Dabchick is shriller and 
more quickly iterated than that of the Great Crested Grebe 
and lacks something of its querulous tone. 
“When feeding, the birds are more under water than on 
the surface. Half-a-dozen dives in deep water, not con- 
secutive but taken at random, timed 25, 26, 23, 27, 28, and 
26 seconds respectively, but in shallow water and particularly 
when the old birds are feeding young the duration is often 
much less. So far as I could judge the young were fed 
exclusively on small fish, but when old enough to forage for 
