( 9 ) 



HABITS OF THE CEESTED GEEBE. 



By 0. V. Aplin, F.L.S. 



On October 8th, 1910 — a beautiful, calm, sunny day — I was 

 fishing at Byfield Eeservoir. When watching, through a tele- 

 scope, one of a pair of Crested Grebes (still retaining breeding 

 dress, although faded and not so bright as in the case of the 

 bird I saw the autumn before last),* which were followed about 

 (sometimes at a distance) all day by two half-grown young, 

 keeping up their peeping cries incessantly, I saw it make a 

 shallow dive and a considerable commotion in the water. It 

 emerged in a few seconds with quite a large fish, comparatively 

 speaking, in its beak, and had some apparent difficulty in 

 dealing with it. Having got a comfortable hold of the fish, it 

 set off swimming rapidly up the water ; but finding, I suppose, 

 that it did not go very fast, it took two long dives, and certainly, 

 I think, it covered more space in the time by diving than by 

 swimming. Each time it came up I could see the fish in its bill 

 glittering, and I think it must have been quite between two and 

 three inches long. Swinging my glass in the direction in which 

 the old Grebe was going, I saw the two young birds, straining at 

 their full pace with necks outstretched and craning forward, 

 coming to meet her (or him), and directly after they met. 

 What exactly happened to the fish I do not know ; perhaps the 

 old bird dropped it, or dived with it for fun. The young rushed 

 at the old one (or at the fish), and all then went under water, 

 to emerge again at once with a great splashing and disturbance. 

 That was all I could see — a regular worry ; and I do not know 

 which of the young got the fish, though no doubt one of them 

 did. The old bird then swam away. There were from twenty 

 to twenty-five Grebes there that day. Except this pair, all the 

 old ones I saw were far advanced in winter dress. The other 

 young ones were full-grown, with the dark lines on their necks 

 very conspicuous. One of these full-grown young flew a long 



- ' Zoologist,' 1908, p. 407. 



