PODICEPS CRISTATUS. (Lath.) 

 Great Crested Grebe, Greater Loon. 



I have again to acknowledge the kindness of my valued 

 correspondent, Mr. Salmon, who, together with the eggs of 

 the Crested Grebe, has obtained for me the following inform- 

 ation relative to its habits, from the Rev. Richard Lubbock, 

 of Norwich, which is highly interesting, especially that part 

 of it relating to the facility of flight of the Great Grebe, in 

 which Ornithologists have usually considered it so deficient. 

 "The nest is often built in an exposed situation; the season of 

 nidification early; the middle of April; so that the young reeds 

 have hardly sprouted sufficiently to conceal the nest from any 

 one w^ho passes in a boat ; yet the appearance of the w^hole is 

 so like a decayed mass of water plants, swept together by the 

 wind, as not to be easily distinguished by an unpractised eye. 

 Great portion of the nest is under water ; that which is above 

 is conical in some degree, and on the top, in a slight cavity, 

 are deposited the eggs, of a whitish colour by nature, but 

 often so stained by the damps of the locality, as to present 

 quite a different appearance. These eggs vary in number. I 

 have seen nests with only three, all nearly hatched ; four is a 

 common number, and sometimes there are five, but one at 

 least is generally addled, so that three young Loons are very 

 commonly seen following the old one. The eggs are almost 

 without an exception found covered with some fragments of 

 rushes, flung carelessly over them, so as to conceal them. 



The female, on being disturbed, leaves the nest by diving ; 

 no bird is seen, but a motion is discerned in the surrounding 

 reeds like a pike making his way through them, but slower 

 and more regular. I have removed the rushes flung over a 

 nest in the morning, and found them replaced in the after- 



