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BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
LITTLE GrREBE. Tachybaptes fiuviatilis (Tunstall). 
“ Dabchick,” “Didopper.” 
Resident, but sparingly distributed. — Mr. Babington (Appendix ‘ Potter,’ 
p. 70) said : — “ Rotbley, Grroby, etc. ; but not abundant.” Harley, however, 
appears to have considered it common in his day, on the Soar, Trent, Wreake, and 
other streams, as well as on most large waters, as Saddington, Grroby, and Bosworth 
Pools, and remarked, under date 14th July, 1842, that “ Young Grrebes have a shrill 
call-note, which they almost incessantly keep up when they first come abroad on 
the surface of the water.” I saw one on Bosworth Pool, on 6th December, 1884, and 
shot one — a male — at Belgrave, by the sewage weir, on 10th February, 1886. Mr. 
G. H. Storer informs me that he saw a pair on the Fish-pond at Ulverscroft Priory, 
on 28th June, 1888. 
IMr. Ingram writes word that it “ breeds in Frog Hollow Pond, near Belvoir,” 
and Mr. W. A. Evans presented to the Museum a nest and three eggs, taken 
by him at Thornton Reservoir on 9th June, 1881, at which time he states that he 
found as many as five nests in one day, and that they were all placed on the 
roots or on the branches of small willows near the shore. He also remarks that 
this species covers its eggs with wet, green, weed, when leaving the nest, as 
recorded of the Great Crested Grebe. With regard to this habit of both Grebes, 
I would remark that, although various authors assert that this is done to assist 
the maturing of the eggs, as a kind of hot-bed, yet I would suggest that, taking 
into consideration the fact that the eggs of both birds when first laid are of 
a dazzling white, it is much more probable that instinct has taught the birds 
to cover up such conspicuous objects from the prying eyes of Carrion-Crows and 
other birds which, as is well known, harry the nests. Very soon, by this covering- 
up process, the eggs become of the same ground colour as those of the Moorhen 
and Coot, a colour not so likely to attract the keen eyes of marauders. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — Lord Gainsborough has observed it at 
Exton Park, and Mr. Horn informs me that, some years ago, it nested regularly at 
Burgess Pond, Ridlington. 
Family ALCID^. 
RAZORBILL. Alca torda, Linnaeus. 
Of very unusual occurrence inland. — I saw an adult specimen, in 1888, 
in the collection of Mr. H. C. Woodcock, who assures me that it was shot on the 
Wreake, at Rearsby, many years ago, by his keeper. 
COMMON GUILLEMOT. Lomvia troile (Linnaeus). 
“ Willock.” 
A very rare and accidental straggler from the coast. — Mr. Macaulay stated 
(‘Mid. Nat.,’ 1882, p. 79) that he had a specimen “.shot many years since on the 
