454 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



AN OBSERVATIONAL DIARY OF THE HABITS— 

 MOSTLY DOMESTIC— OF THE GREAT CRESTED 

 GREBE {PODICIPES GRISTATUS), AND OF THE 

 PEEWIT (VANELLUS VULGARIS), WITH SOME 

 GENERAL REMARKS. 



By Edmund Selous. 



(Continued from p. 350.) 



May Srd, 1901. — I was here this morning from about 4.30 a.m., 

 but an unfortunate circumstance obliged me to leave at 7 ; and 

 on the following day I was unable to come, owing to being 

 indisposed. Up to my leaving, no pairing and no peculiar 

 antic or display between the two birds — as witnessed the 

 previous morning — had taken place. Twice, however, the two 

 had approached the nest, and each had lain along the water, as 

 though inviting the other, in the way I have recorded in my 

 notes of last year. On each occasion this was followed by an 

 approach of the birds to the nest, but the impulse was not suffi- 

 cient to cause either of them to ascend it, though this was evi- 

 dently in their minds. This, together with all their actions in 

 this respect which I have witnessed, makes me think that the 

 actual pairing of these birds takes place, always, either on the 

 nest itself, or on some structure of weeds, either naturally or 

 artificially formed for the purpose, the lying along the water 

 being only the suggestion preliminary to the subsequent ascent. 

 Such, at least, has always been the case, and the manner in which 

 the pairing is accomplished, the one bird standing entirely up- 

 right — like a Penguin — on the body of the other, would seem to 

 necessitate some solid foundation. Nevertheless, the lying along 

 the water may point to a past state of things, in which pairing 

 took place in it, as it does now with Ducks. 



During all the time I was here (from 4.40 to 6.45, to be pre- 

 cise) neither of the two birds carried any weeds to the nest, or 



