The Little Grebe. 2 °* 



Allied species are found in South Australia, New Zealand, and North. America. 



In September, 1889, I found the Little Grebe abundant in the Kennet and 

 Kennet canal a few miles above Newbury. One morning I saw between thirty and 

 forty in a walk of about five miles, without looking out for them particularly closely. 

 On one occasion I saw six together — possibly a pair of old ones and their young. 

 Their loud, ringing, chattering cry was very frequently heard. They were sur- 

 prisingly tame, and several times I walked up within ten yards of a bird before 

 it dived. Some birds, after diving, came to the surface again within that distance 

 of the spot where I stood, but most of them did not appear again, having probably 

 come up within the shelter of the thick rushes and water plants. The old birds were 

 still in very fine summer plumage, the upper parts appearing nearly black, and the 

 bright, rich, chestnut-red on the sides of the face, cheeks, and neck, was very 

 conspicuous. In severe weather, when the ponds and streams are frozen up and 

 covered with snow, the Dabchick is driven to hard straits, and those individuals 

 which cannot make their way to unfrozen water in the salt-marshes, frequently 

 succumb to starvation, or are killed by their human enemies, being shot by gunners 

 and even caught by hand. At such times the Little Grebe may be found in strange 

 places. During the severe winter of 1 890-1, on the morning of the 3rd of 

 January, a Dabchick was brought to me for identification, which had been picked 

 up dead on the snow, under the windows of a house on high ground, and at least 

 two miles from any water ordinarily frequented by this bird. 



The Dabchick is quick and abrupt in all its movements, and is a very active 

 bird. When seen on the open water with other wildfowl they are usually observed 

 swimming about in and out among the other birds with great rapidity, reminding 

 one of torpedo boats among slower, heavier craft. When feeding they dive with 

 great abruptness, popping up again like a cork at a few feet or yards distance of 

 the place where they disappeared, and showing a marked contrast to the graceful 

 and easy manner in which a Crested Grebe glides beneath the water and as quietly 

 emerges again. The Little Grebe can assume a fairly upright position when on land, 

 and so far from resting on the whole length of the tarsus, carries the latter at 

 an angle with the ground of more than 45 . Any one who has had the opportunity 

 of studying the ways of a Dabchick, when brought into a room, must have been 

 struck with its activity, and the rapidity with which it will " patter" about the floor. 



The powers of flight possessed by this little bird have been considerably 

 under-rated, and it has been credited with much less willingness to take flight 

 than it really exhibits. On a moderate sized reservoir, in Oxfordshire, I have 

 often seen these little divers rise from the water and fly for a considerable distance 

 with rapidly beating wings. This habit is more frequent in spring, but may be 



