422 THE BIRDS OF DEVON. 



assumes a dark red throat, "whicli is lost in the winter dress. Like all 

 the other Grebes, this small species passes the breeding-season on ponds 

 and lakes, and on sluggish streams which are fringed with atjuatic 

 herbage, wandering oft' in the autumn towards the coasts, and in the 

 winter may be encountered on the tideway. We have sometimes met 

 with little flocks of a dozen or more on streams in the winter, and after 

 carefully stalking them in the belief that they were Teal, have been much 

 amused on getting near them to discover what they were as they dived 

 and disappeared. The Dabchick has received from some a bad reputation 

 as a devourer of fish-spawn, but we can affirm that it can get on Aery 

 well without that dainty, as we have detected it on several occasions 

 passing the summer on cattle-ponds which were quite devoid of fish. On 

 our fishing excursions, in the summer-time, we sometimes came across a 

 iamily party of Little Grebes, the two old ones swimming and diving 

 about among the white water-lilies, attending on the striped infant 

 ])abchicks (which occasionally climb up on the parent's back), making a 

 charming picture, as it is faithfully rendered in Mr. Dresser's beautiful 

 book (' Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. p. G59). 



The Little Grebe has a wide range, being met with from Scandinavia 

 to the Cape of Good Hope ; in Asia as far east as Japan : also in Australia 

 and Xew Zealand. 



Family ALCID^. 



THE CLIFF-BIRDS : GUILLEMOTS AND AUKS. 



Resident for three parts of the year on the sea itself, 

 where they live entirely upon fish, the Guillemots and 

 Auks resort to the coast and to various rocky islands only 

 at the nesting-season. They have a ijeneral resemblance in 

 their plumage, which is dark on the upper parts and white 

 below, and are most of them remarkable for their num- 

 bers. Three of them — the Common Guillemot, the Razor- 

 bill, and the Puffin — breed either upon or in close 

 proximity to our Devonshire shores, and are to be met 

 with in the English and Bristol Channels throughout the 

 year. The Black Guillemot, a very abundant species on 

 the N.W. coast of Scotland and on its "islands gay," 

 seldom migrates, and only occurs by accident very rarely 

 in the south. The Little Auk, the smallest member of 



