THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 
879 
other does so also, their presence adding greatly to the 
beauty of a sheet of water. 
The Crested Grebe is much averse to the society of 
other birds; and, during the breeding season, one may 
safely reckon that there will be only a single pair on a 
large sheet of water, for one couple will not tolerate the 
presence of a second in its domain. Nor does it associate 
much with other water-fowl; and if by chance it finds 
itself in company with Ducks and Coots it is sure to 
separate from them before long. 
The surface of the water affords this bird but little in 
the way of food,—at the most a passing insect, which it 
will snap at and catch in the air, or an occasional frog or 
other similar creature. Its true fishing ground is in deep 
water, where small fish and the larvae of insects abound. 
It feeds under water, only rising to the surface to devour 
such prey as may be larger than usual. It is a singular 
fact that this bird plucks its own feathers from its body, 
and swallows them. The elder Naumann first observed 
this, and his son writes, as follows, respecting this 
peculiar habit:—“ The stomach of a dead Grebe often 
contains a ball of feathers, in which the food becomes 
enveloped during the process of digestion, and only 
shows itself, either whole or in particles, after becoming 
disentangled. These feathers seem to act with the Grebe 
—like sand or small stones do with many other birds— 
as a necessary aid to digestion, and are never wanting in 
the stomach : remove them, and it would then be entirely 
empty, and the bird die of hunger. Whether these 
feathers pass through the intestines, or are cast up by 
the throat, is at present undetermined. In the bird’s 
foeces—which are liquid, chalky, white, and heavy enough 
to sink to the bottom—there was no trace of feathers to 
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