HABITS OF THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 341 



growing, had more the appearance of driftage. Just where the 

 one bird had lain, however, the weeds were thicker, and it 

 certainly looked as though they had been added to. This 

 suggests, of course, that here may be the beginning of a nest ; 

 yet of building it I have, as yet, seen no sign. Possibly the 

 birds find pairing in the water difficult, if not impossible, and 

 therefore choose for this purpose a natural foundation of weeds, 

 to which they add when greater stability is needed. 



April 25th. — Arrive at 6.30 a.m., and find the birds swim- 

 ming about. In a little while they both swim to the same little 

 belt of weeds, but if, as is probable, with the intention of 

 pairing, this is not followed up. Several times they front each 

 other in the water, and, with their snaky necks reared up, tdter 

 a little with the beak, or make little tosses of their heads in 

 the air. 



It is pretty to see these Grebes drink, which they do with a 

 little scoop of their bills on the water, raising, then, the head 

 quickly, till the beak spears perpendicularly up at the sky. 



8 o'clock. — The two have just swum to the weeds again, and 

 one of them — I think, this time, the female — lies along amidst 

 them, but without jumping up on to anything. There is nothing 

 further, however, and they soon swim away. But very soon 

 afterwards they return, and one — I think, the male — ^jumping up 

 and lying along, the other, in a moment or two, follows, and 

 pairing takes place. The second upspringing bird — the one that 

 has just, apparently, performed the office and function of the 

 male — now comes off the platform of weeds, passing forward 

 along the body of the other one, and leaving him upon it. It 

 certainly seems the smaller of the two, and when the other, 

 shortly after, also takes the water, and both are together, this 

 latter seems again, as before, to be the larger, and the one which 

 I have always known and recognized as the male. I carefully 

 keep the two separate with the glasses. A little while afterwards 

 the birds again approach the weeds, and again the male (quite 

 certainly) leaps up and lies along them. He evidently waits for 

 the other — the female — but she this time does not comply. He 

 comes down, follows her a little, they turn, he again leaps up, 

 waits, looks round and waits, but to no purpose. Coming off 

 again, he now (for the first time that I have yet seen) lays some 



