332 BIRD WATCHING 



aquatic plants, but I have noticed in it (indeed, I 

 have seen the birds placing and carrying them) 

 water-logged sticks of some size, one end of which 

 is fixed amongst the mass, whilst the other sinks 

 down into the mud, and the tangle that may 

 spring from it. Such sticks must act as so many 

 anchors, and may, perhaps, be the chief means 

 by which the nest is kept stationary. To judge 

 by the two birds which I particularly watched, 

 the great crested grebe has the habit of building 

 several nests, and, besides this, the male makes a 

 small platform of weeds just off the edge of the 

 bank, and near to the nest. Sometimes he seems 

 in doubt whether to take his weeds to the nest or 

 the platform, and in this hesitation, and in the 

 building of more than one nest, we may, perhaps, 

 see the origin of the latter structure. With regard 

 to this, and some other points which seemed to me 

 of interest, I may refer to a paper of mine which has 

 lately appeared in the Zoologist* In this I give a 

 minute account of the nest-building and some other 

 habits of these birds, as illustrated by a pair which 

 I watched very closely ; and I will here record my 

 conviction that there is more to be learnt by such 

 watching of any one species, or even any one 

 individual bird, than in the killing or robbing of 

 thousands. 



When I say this, it is not only of the interest 

 that there is in a creature's ways and habits that I 

 am thinking, but also of the light that these may, at 

 any moment, throw upon its descent and affinities — 

 upon all those questions and subjects which are 



* May 1901. 



