BIRDS IN LONDON 277 



says that the four young birds of the first brood 

 would all scramble on to the back of the parent 

 bird as she sat on the water ; that she would 

 then, by a very quick upward movement of her 

 wings, appear to clasp them against her body 

 with her stiff quills, and instantly dive. After 

 some seconds she would come up with all the 

 four young still clasped to her, their heads 

 and necks appearing above her back. At the 

 moment of diving, sometimes one or two of the 

 little ones would drop off and remain floating on 

 the surface until the parent reappeared, when 

 they would once more scramble on to her back. 



It is a pleasure to have this river bird, which 

 many persons are unable to see in its native 

 haunts, so tame in our ornamental waters. One 

 day in October, in Finsbury Park, I watched a 

 parent dabchick catching minnows and feeding a 

 full-grown young bird that accompanied it ; the 

 fishing and feeding went on for ten to twelve 

 minutes near the edge of the lake, within six or 

 seven feet of where I stood. The old bird dived 

 about nineteen times at that spot, bringing up a 

 small silvery minnow each time ; the fish was 

 invariably bruised or crushed with the beak 



