ones trying to keep up with her ; but not succeeding, she
stopped, and one went on one side and one on the other, and
seemed to take hold of the feathers beneath the wing, which
she raised apparently for that purpose, and placing the tip
of a wing on each young one, as if to keep them in their
places, she swam slowly off, putting one very much in mind
of a small river tug-boat towing a couple of barges. I apprehend
few people have ever seen such an interesting sight.”
The same excellent observer writes as follows :—“ I have
discovered the manner in which the Dabcliick covers up her
eggs. I always imagined that it was done with her feet;
but I now find that the bird does it with her beak. I
dropped my boat down upon one the other day which was just
hatching ; in fact, one egg was hatched; and I found the
young one in the w'ater two yards from the nest. I strongly
suspect she pulled it out of the nest in her hurry to get
away, for the little thing could only float. Well, I suppose
she wxas so intent upon hatching that she did not observe
me until I wxas close to her, say three yards away. She, on
seeing me, immediately stood on the side of the nest, and
with her beak pulled the weeds from the side of the nest,
taking four or five small mouthfuls, and placed them over
the eggs, and immediately dived into the water.”
The Little Grebe is common and resident in Ireland, and
too universally distributed in localities suited to its habits
in England, to render particular enumeration necessary.
Its skulking habits tend to screen it from the casual eye, but
keen observers have several times detected its presence on
such frequented waters as those of the London parks.
Mr. Harting says, “ We have observed a Little Grebe on
the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, and were not a
little surprised one summer to find the bird nesting there;
the nest, a floating shallow structure, being moored to some
aquatic plants at a distance from the shore.” Under the
altered condition of this pond, the Dabcliick can no longer
breed there ; but the Editor watched it a few summers ago
on the small piece of shrub-surrounded water close to * the
Row ’ in Hyde Park.
In Scotland this small species is not considered to be so
plentiful as with us in the south, but, according to Mr. R.
Gray, it is resident and generally distributed throughout the
country, including both the Inner and the Outer Hebrides ;
breeding up to an elevation of 2,000 feet in the western
mountains, and even at a greater height in Inverness-shire.
It occurs in the Orkneys, and Saxby considers that in the
Shetlands, to which it is a winter visitant, it is probably
more common than it seems to be, owing to its retiring
habits.
In the Foeroes it is of very rare occurrence, and it has not
been known to visit Iceland ; nor does its range in Norway
extend beyond 62° N. lat. It is rare or very local in Finland
and in the northern and central portions of Russia ; but
throughout the greater part of the rest of Europe it is
generally distributed in suitable localities, down to the
Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caspian. It breeds
in North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt; and also in Abyssinia
at from 5,000 to 11,000 feet of elevation. In Asia
Minor and Palestine it is a resident; it occurs in Persia;
and throughout India it is of general distribution in winter,
breeding in abundance in Kashgar, Kashmir, and the
Northern Provinces, and probably in Ceylon. Subject to
slight variations, this species ranges eastwards to Japan and
China, and southwards to Burmali, through Malaysia, to
Australia, but not to New Zealand ; it is also found in
Madagascar; and over a large portion of South Africa,
where it is resident. It does not occur in America.
The adult bird in summer, represented in the illustration
by the one which is swimming, has the beak black, the tip
of a light horn-colour, the upper mandible straight, the
under mandible brought to a point by a line directed
obliquely upwards from the symphysis, or junction of the
two portions ; the soft part of both mandibles, forming the
angle at the gape, greenish-yellow ; irides reddish-brown ;
head, back of the neck, and all the upper surface of the
body, very dark brown, almost black ; the secondary quill-
feathers white, but these are not seen when the wings are