314 
WILD NORWAY. 
this bird was “ douker” which must be a grebe. Now 
we had already traversed these lagoons in all directions 
without seeing a sign of grebes, nor did it seem easy 
that their large floating nests could have escaped us 
on water only obstructed by the dead cane-stalks of 
last year, each cut off about a foot above-water by 
the winter’s ice,^ and by bog-bean and water-lilies. 
But we were not above taking a hint, and within 
five minutes Hans had poled us up to a Great Crested 
Grebes nest containing five hard-sat eggs, and we 
afterwards found others. Large as these nests are— 
great piles of floating canes and flags, lined with lily- 
leaves and anchored to the dead stalks aforesaid—yet 
they were quite invisible at forty yards’ distance, nor 
(though the eggs were hot) did we ever get even a 
glimpse of their owners! A close acquaintance with 
creatures of such intensely retiring disposition is 
obviously difficult. We found no other species of grebe 
here, though, further north, in 1889, I had recognized 
both the Eared and Slavonian Grebes. 
Up to the middle of May we had noticed a few pairs 
of Green Sandpipers, tame and very skulking, threading 
their way among the herbage close at hand, and only 
flying a few yards when flushed. A week later, these 
had all passed on northwards ; whereas the Wood-Sand¬ 
piper, which was much more numerous, remained, and 
some pairs appeared to be breeding. Whimbrels (on 
migration) were seen or heard daily, and a single pair of 
Great Snipes frequented a marshy meadow, though they 
* A week later (May 19th) the new growth of canes was shooting 
up all over, the thin green stalks already a foot or two out of 
the water. In June these reeds were six or eight feet high. 
