148 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. [cmar. xvitr. 
up small bunches of it, and clambering up the sides of their 
nest (the bottom of which was in the water), they made a layer 
of this, hollowed out in the middle. They worked only in the 
morning and very late in the evening. Their eggs were six in 
number, and when first laid, quite white, and nearly oval. 
During the time of sitting, whenever the old bird left her nest 
she covered her eggs most carefully. The singular part of this 
proceeding was, that she always dived for a quantity of green 
weed, which grew at the bottom of the pond, and used this, 
wet as it was, to cover her eggs. By the time that they had 
been laid for a few days they became green and dirty-looking, 
having quite the appearance of being addled—and no wonder, 
as the nest was constantly wet from below, the water coming up 
through the rushes and weeds of which it was composed ; and 
she gave them a fresh wet covering every time that she left 
them, arranging it around the eggs, so that the edges of the 
nest gradually became higher and higher. The bird appeared 
to be very frequently off during the daytime, remaining away 
for hours together, playing about on the water with her mate. 
After a fortnight of this kind of sitting, I one day saw her fol- 
lowed by six little dabchicks, scarcely bigger than large beetles, 
but as active and as much at home on the water as their parents. 
A very windy day came on, and the young birds collected ina 
group behind a floating rail, which being half grounded at an 
angle of the pool, made a kind of breakwater for them. The. 
old birds swam out of this harbour when I came, but the little 
ones crept close up to the railing, uttering a feeble squeak like a 
young chicken. Huddled up in a group, they certainly were 
the smallest and quaintest-looking little divers that I ever saw. 
I have heard it argued that it was impossible that eggs could be 
hatched in a situation constantly exposed to so much wet and 
damp, but those of this kind of grebe are certainly an exception, 
as they were continually wet below, and frequently covered with 
wet green weed. I do not know why the bird should always 
bring the covering from below the water, but she invariably did 
s0, and the pool being in a convenient place for my watching 
them closely, I took some trouble to be sure that my observa- 
tions were correct. It is a pretty, amusing little bird, and quite 
harmless: I have always much pleasure in watching their lively: 
