ORNITHOLOGICAL OBSERVATION IN ICELAND. 69 



returned, and relieved her. At 1.30 the female again took her 

 turn. About five minutes before 2, the male reappears, and, in 

 a minute or two, I see him leap up on the nest. I miss seeing 

 the female come off, but she was on it up to a little before. In 

 about a quarter of an hour, she returns, but keeps to the stream, 

 and the male leaves the nest, to join her. For a few minutes, 

 they swim about together, at one time, very cosily, side by side 

 and almost touching. Then the female goes on, and the male 

 brings some more material to the nest, for which he once dives. 

 He then swims some way down the stream, but very soon comes 

 back, and, at 2.25, the female leaves the nest, and rejoins him. 

 They swim a little together, again, going down stream, but, very 

 soon, the male returns, and, at 2.32, takes his place again. I 

 fancy that in the interval between then and 4 p.m., when I went 

 to my tent for breakfast, he must once more have given up his 

 place, and afterwards retaken it. Of this, however, I cannot be 

 sure, and he had certainly sat unrelieved for a considerable time 

 before I left — comparatively, that is to say, for the quick intervals 

 at which the two have relieved each other upon the nest is here 

 the salient feature, and may be peculiar to this Grebe, since I 

 have not observed it either in the Dabchick or Great Crested 

 one. 



There is no doubt as to the great beauty of this species. The 

 rich russet chestnut of its sides, contrasting with the glossy slate- 

 blue of the back, its neck russet also, the plum-bloomy ruff, 

 the jewel-like eye and beautiful, almost golden, tufts of plumage 

 on the cheeks — all this, with the silky and silvery white of the 

 under surface which, when it rises on the water, is still its 

 loveliest adornment, makes it one of the gorgeous-plumaged 

 birds of the world, much more in keeping with a tropical land- 

 scape than with these cold and colourless regions. There, 

 perhaps, it might purchase security by the fiery blending and 

 salient inconspicuousness of its hues, but here it is as badly off 

 for plum-trees or orange-trees as is the Tiger for bamboos, over 

 the greater part of its range. It swims over waters that are 

 grey, and by shores that neither in themselves nor through their 

 reflections at all resemble its own plumage ; and it makes its 

 large brown nest amidst thinly-growing, green flags, and sits 

 there with its head, like a small sun, shining above it, a ruby 



