68 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



more closely. This I succeeded in doing, part of the way on my 

 back and the rest crawling flat, till I was at last so close that I 

 not only saw the vividly bright ruby-red iris of the bird's eye, 

 as it sat on the nest— which I at first thought a spot of red 

 plumage — but the small light pupil in the centre, of a green- 

 grey or yellowish colour. It was the female, not however 

 occupied in building the nest, but merely stationary upon it, but 

 it was not till I had got nearer still — perhaps within twenty 

 feet — that I was able properly to distinguish the structure of the 

 nest, amidst the rushes. I lay enjoying this close view, for 

 some time, when I heard a very soft note, quickly repeated, 

 something like " croo, croo, croo, croo, croo," which, though it 

 got nearer, seemed hardly to get louder, till, at last, the male 

 came stealing through the rushes, to the side of the nest, and, 

 his partner coming off it into the water, he sprang up, and took 

 her place. After a time, which, in my constrained position, 

 seemed long enough, there was another change, but when the 

 male, now relieved in his turn, began swimming up the stream, 

 he must, I suppose, have caught a sight of me, or of something 

 to make him suspicious, for, as far as I could hear only (I dared 

 not now raise my head), he flew, for a little, along the water. 

 Still the female kept her place, but, some time afterwards there 

 was a sudden loud utterance of the curious mewing note I have 

 before mentioned— a loud mew, in fact — upon which she showed 

 instant anxiety, and quietly dropped off the nest. The male, 

 however, in spite of his sudden alarm-note — for it must surely 

 have been his — and previous flurry, came on to the nest again, 

 but the female was now in a state of suspicion, to which her own 

 observations kept adding, so, seeing that things would not con- 

 tinue longer in their natural course, if I remained where I was, 

 I crawled away over the flat and up the hill again, to a point on 

 the summit, from which I could still see the nest, with the sitting 

 male. It was now, of course, perfectly evident that, in spite of 

 the continued bringing of weed to the nest, incubation had begun 

 with these Grebes, and also that both sexes shared in it. The 

 subsequent intervals, whilst I watched, at which the pair relieved 

 one another, were as follows. At about 12.30 p.m., the female, 

 who had waited about, anxiously, to do so, and whose fears were 

 now dissipated, took her place on the eggs. At 1, the male 



