153 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1865. 



DABCHICKS. 



"PROPERLY, I ought not to call tliem dabcbicks 

 J-- —not at least in capitals, and at the head of 

 my papev— for the true distinctive English name of 

 the bird is "The Little Grebe." But "dabchick" 

 is so happily expressive of the habits and appearance 

 of the animal, that it recalls in a moment its 

 nervous jerky motion on the water, and its sudden 

 disappearance with a " Hip," as if, instead of diving, 

 it had unexpectedly jumped down its own throat. 



Wriggling about everywhere, all over the pond, 

 in a state of chronic fuss, as if they had only five 

 minutes left to get through the work of a day, now 

 popping up ci propos to nothing at all, and then 

 turning head over heels, as if to catch their tails 

 between their legs, these birds fidgeted through 

 life in a ceaseless bustle. Was it sheer idleness 

 which made me love to watch them by the hour 

 together, lying in my punt, while the rushes grated 

 pleasantly against its sides as I moved ? There is a 

 reception of nature's truth in these seasons of 

 seeming laziness, which, though one is not conscious 

 of the strain of observation, stores the mind with 

 healthy useful memories. 



The family of grebes, to which the dabcliick 

 belongs, represent the freshwater divers. They 

 remain during nearly the whole of the year in the 

 same mere, spending a large proportion of their 

 time under water, whence they drag the material 

 which their nests are composed of. The grebe 

 seldom takes to the wing, and makes a very bad 

 hand of walking, its legs being placed so far astern 

 as to render it dilHcult for the body to be supported 

 when on dry land. It has not the sense to hold its 

 chin up and jump along like a kangaroo. 



The dabchick swims at a great pace under water, 

 and when disturbed will remain for some time with 

 its head alone above the surface — sometimes stick- 

 ing up only bill enough to breathe with. The bird, 

 which is reddish black, with ash-colour below the 

 water-line, weighs about six ounces, i.e., to provide 

 a more intelligible idea, say about as much as a 

 rook. The young ones dive from the cradle ; indeed, 

 unlike the mother of many little folks, its anxious 

 parent takes care to keep its feet wet during the 

 whole course of its youth. Master Dabchick is 

 never obliged to put on dry stockings when he 

 comes home, for the nest is always dripping wet 

 through. The eggs, about five in number, are laid 

 in a squashy heap of weeds; the mother, defying the 

 danger of a damp bed, incubates in a puddle, and 

 when she leaves the eggs even for a short time, 

 drags a few soaking weeds over them, so that they 

 are not dried even by the mid-day sun. The effect 

 of this upon the eggs is remarkable; when laid 

 they are quite white, but before they arc hatched 

 become of a dull blotchy reddish brown — exactly as 



if they had been smeared all over by bloody fingers 

 and then put back. This is caused by the juices of 

 the decaying materials of the nest. The eggs of 

 coots and waterhens, on the contrary, are hatched 

 dry, never change their colour-, and are always left 

 exposed when the parent quits its nest. But the 

 dabchiek's egg might set would-be zoologists to- 

 gether by the ears, as much as the chameleon did 

 the opinionated travellers. 'Tis white ! 'tis mottled ! 

 no, 'tis red. The dabchick flies but seldom, but 

 when he does, he pegs away at it furiously, working 

 his stumpy stiff-looking wings with all his might. 

 The rapidity with which he dives enabled him to 

 duck at the flash of the old flint guns ; before the 

 priming had fired the charge, he was off, and the 

 sportsman saw a bubble instead of a bird on the 

 water. It is wanton work, however, to kill these 

 cheerful little creatures. No skill can be developed 

 in the practice, i.e., when the percussion gun is 

 used; and when obtained they are worthless, the 

 flavour of the dabchick being, I should think, easily 

 realized by putting some rank fishy weeds into 

 a wholesome dish of some other small fowl. No, 

 leave the merry fellows alone ; but if you care to 

 watch the capricious frolics of a waterbird, you 

 cannot choose a better than the common, but most 

 interesting dabchick. 



I cannot help making an apology to the great 

 crested grebe for thus dwelling on the manners and 

 customs of his small relation, the dabchick. 



The great crested grebe, or looii, is a giant com- 

 pared to our little friend the dabchick, and altogether 

 makes a more respectable appearance, both in pic- 

 ture and pond. The habits and figure of the two 

 birds, though, are much the same. 



There are numbers of loons in the "broads" of 

 Norfolk. Indeed, it is in East Anglia that I have 

 most especially watched the dabchick. These loons, 

 like the lesser grebes, incubate and leave their eggs 

 in the wet, and meet with the same ridiculous failure 

 when they attempt to walk. Like them, they are 

 capital divers, and begin from the egg. A most 

 accurate and patient observer and friend of birds, 

 beasts, and little boys (the Pev. J. C. Atkinson), 

 with whom I have had many a day's nesting and 

 rabbiting, states that " the first lessons of the young 

 loon in diving are taken beneath the literal shelter 

 of their mother's wing." In this case, supposing 

 the instinctive expectancy of the newly hatched led 

 them to wait for the signal from the parent hatcher, 

 and defer their infant plunge till the old bird dived 

 with them, these young loons would prove an exact- 

 ing family to a domestic hen. Possibly she might 

 fancy them less disappointing than ducks ; while in 

 truth, like many an anxious and gratified mothei', 

 she would be attributing their abstinence to nature 

 rather tlian to artificial deference, or absence of 

 contagious example. Harby Jones, M.A. 



