408 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the birds like to breed inside the tall rush-beds as a protection 
from the Carrion-Crows, which are very numerous round the 
reservoir, and take a great many eges of the Coots, as well as 
those of the Grebes whenever they get the chance. Hggs have 
been known on this pool in May, but probably these early eggs 
are destroyed either by Crows or occasionally by a sudden rise in 
the water, the level of which sometimes rises very rapidly after 
heavy rains in spring. But breeding is more usual in the latter 
part of June and early in July. I have known fresh eggs (two 
nests) on July 6th in one year, and on the 2nd in another, and 
‘‘sat upon” eggs (two nests) on the 15th in a third. 
The late nesting of the Great Crested Grebe is alluded to in 
the ‘Field’? newspaper for Oct. 29th, 1898; some eggs were 
taken in Ireland towards the end ot July, and the bird laid four 
more, which on Sept. 1st were ‘‘ fairly advanced towards incuba- 
tion.’’ Nilsson, indeed (quoted by Lloyd in his ‘ Scandinavian 
Adventures’), speaks as if late summer was the normal breeding- 
time in Sweden. Describing its breeding haunts he writes : 
‘‘And here one finds, in July or the beginning of August, four 
eggs.”’ On the other hand, I have heard of full clutches of eggs 
found in Nottinghamshire on May 6th, and an egg laid in Oxford- 
shire as early as April 24th. 
