178 colymbiDjE. 



tion/^ in rowing after it by men accustomed to the business was 

 required before the bird was approached in such a manner that it 

 coukl be fired at. 



A fine adult bird^ kept on the water in St. James's Park, Lou- 

 don, is mentioned by Yarrell. This is probably the same indi- 

 vidual which aflbrded much amusement to a friend and myself 

 one evening at the end of April 1843, by the extreme agility dis- 

 played in fly-catching. It pursued its prey in all possible w^ays, 

 shooting its neck vertically upwards for any passing overhead, 

 the next moment to one side or other, and again making a rush 

 along the surface of the water for two or three yards after some 

 winged insect. I never saw so much agility displayed by any 

 bird in this pursuit : all the numerous species of Anatida on the 

 water, though busied fly-catching also, were the veriest dolts 

 compared with the grebe. 



This species has been already alluded to as more frequent in 

 Ireland than Scotland, and, judging from general works on 

 British birds, I should have believed it to be as common in the 

 former country as in England, According, however, to the fol- 

 lowing extract from the Rev. Mr. Lubbock's ' Pauna of Norfolk,' 

 and the communication from John Gatcombe, Esq., of Plymouth, 

 which succeeds it, greater numbers have been observed there than 

 I ever heard of in Ireland. Mr. Lubbock gives from personal 

 observation much the fullest and most interesting account of the 

 habits of this bird that I have seen, having had fine opportunities 

 for studying them on the " broads " of that county. He states 

 that " fifteen or sixteen might be seen in the same day and at the 

 same time in different parts of South Walsham broad " (p. 84) : 

 whether all old birds, or old ones with their broods, is not men- 

 tioned. In the summer of 1833 he knew of five grebes' nests 

 " upon a pool of water a good deal overgrown with reed" (p. 88). 

 Nests of that year are, of course, meant, but there may be a fal- 

 lacy in such a case. Two nests were reported as being on the lake 

 in Hillsborough Park in one season, and correctly so ; but, on exa- 

 mination, one of them proved to be the nest of a former year !^ 



* Two pair, however, bred here in the summer of 1850, the yomig of the first 



