several pairs of Dabchicks have reared their broods 

 annually on the ornamental water in St. James's Park. 

 Mr. Harting has recorded the finding of a nest on the 

 Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, and I have several 

 times seen Dabchicks near the bridge that spans the 

 Serpentine ; these metropolitan Grebes naturally become 

 perfectly tame and permit very close observation, but in 

 less frequented localities they are, in my experience, 

 somewhat shy of man during the summer months, and 

 as the water is their natural home concealment is easy. 

 My principal opportunities of close observation of this 

 bird in England have been on the river Nene during 

 protracted frosts ; at these seasons almost every " wake" 

 or hole in the ice is tenanted by one or two Dabchicks 

 or "Didoppers" as they are locally called, the vigour 

 and suddenness of their dives, and their fashion of 

 coming to the surface again like a cork, as if they could 

 not help it, are most amusing, and have often detained 

 me a delighted spectator, till my numbed feet warned 

 me that it would be prudent to move on. In the 

 summer-time the Dabchick obtains much of its food 

 upon or close to the surface of the water, in the shape 

 of aquatic insects and tadpoles ; but, when the frost has 

 put an end to the existence of the insects, and tadpoles 

 have developed into hybernating frogs, the minute fry of 

 fishes furnish our birds with their daily food. Although 

 these birds are very averse to take wing, they can, and 

 frequently do, take considerable aerial journeys, as is 

 proved in my experience, not only by several instances 

 of their being killed by contact with telegraph and other 

 wires, but also by their sudden appearance upon isolated 



