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 jt white- 



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 Ithou 



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355 







( 



Wheth 



have had less favourable opportunities of studying this bird in its natural haunts, I can myself 

 verify much of what he has written : 



" Podiceps cristattts is found at all seasons of the year upon Lake Guyon, a small lake in 

 the Nelson Province, lying close under the Spencer mountain-range, and upon the borders of 

 which the station buildings connected with a run occupied by me are situated. The water of this 

 lake is generally very warm, and even in severe seasons has never been frozen over. To this fact I 

 attribute the circumstance that some of these birds are to be found upon it throughout the year. 

 There are several apparently permanent nests on the borders of the lake, which have been occupied 

 by pairs of birds for many years in succession, from which I am led to infer that, as in the case of 

 some of the Anatidee, these birds pair for life. These nests are built amongst the twiggy branches 

 of trees which have fallen from the banks of the lake, and now lie half floating in its waters, and 

 are formed of irregularly laid masses of various species of pond-weeds, chiefly Potamogeton^ 

 found growing in the lake, and which the birds obtain by diving. They are but little raised 

 above the surface of the water ; for, in consequence of the position and structure of its feet, and 

 the general form of its body, the Grebe is unable to raise itself upon the former unless the body 



be in great measure supported by water. 



"The eggs are usually three in number, and are somewhat peculiar in form, having an 

 apparent thickening in the middle and tapering towards both ends. When 

 a chalky and slightly greenish hue, but soon become completely discoloured, 

 coloration is solely due to contact with the materials of the nest, or whether the birds themselves, 

 under the influence of some instinctive habit, contribute towards it, I am not prepared to say. 



" It has been suggested by observers that the discoloration of the eggs of some of the water- 

 birds is due, in part at least, to voluntary action of the parent birds. In this connexion the 

 Eev. J. C. Atkinson, a very close observer, tells us, in reference to the eggs of Podiceps minor, 

 that 'when first extruded they are perfectly white, but seldom remain long so, gradually 

 becomino; a stale blood-stained hue, from which are gradations to a more or less dirt-bedabbled 

 white, all eventually becoming of one dirty, muddy red-brown ;' and he inquires, ' to what cause 

 is this colouring due] is it intentional on the part of the bird, or is it accidental ■? ' He does not 

 believe that the colour ' is, in any case, due to mud from the feet of the bird, nor that it is 

 altogether derived from the weeds with which the eggs are usually covered during the absence of 

 the birds from the nest ;' for he mentions that he met with a nest of Fodice])S minor with a 

 single egg in it, evidently very recently laid, uncovered as it lay in the nest, but which was 

 stained of a dull mottled dirt-colour all over. He worked at it with water and his fingers, and 

 after much labour brought it back to a dirty mottled white ; but he says ' that had he expended 

 one tenth part of the same labour upon a soiled hen's egg, he would have succeeded in restoring 

 its original whiteness.' But this point is one which I merely suggest here for the consideration 

 of future observers, having formed no absolute opinion of my own upon it. I am, however, 

 inclined to think against any intentional action on the part of the bird in producing the disco- 

 loration of the egg ; for I believe that, were such a discoloration necessary for the protection of a 



species having so wide a range, it would be exhibited by the egg itself immediately upon its extru- 

 sion, as in the case of Gulls and other birds which form slight open nests in exposed situations, in 

 which cases the eggs (and even the young birds proceeding from them) are so much assimilated 



3 A 2 



