Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/189

Rh Cormorant-like as the male's. The male floats or swims about in the neighbourhood as before, continually preening himself. Sometimes he will make a little swift gliding leap up in the water and smartly shake his wings. This upward motion is very graceful and snake-like, for, as the body rises, the long neck, which seems but an extension of it, curves backwards, upwards, and again forwards as the bird sinks back on the water, the whole motion much resembling the quick forward glide of a serpent. The male bird makes now, at short intervals, four approaches to the nest, and at each of these the female lowers her head, and, with neck stretched forward, lies all along the nest, obviously prepared for and expecting his marital attentions. Each time, too, the male swimming to the right place at the nest and craning his neck over it, seems on the point of springing up, but does not do so. He preens the feathers of his neck, again seems about to spring, preens again, and swims away. After the fourth return he swam to a good way off, and remained some time away, after which there were three more approaches, when the same thing took place. The female must have put herself in position on the nest at least a dozen times, and would often slightly raise her head and look round at the male, then again lower it as before. On no other occasion have I seen her lie thus with her head and neck stretched straight out, and flat along the nest. I wish to make it quite plain that these actions of the two birds, seen, practically, by the aid of the glasses at a few yards distance, could admit of no other interpretation than that which I have placed upon them: so that, taken together with what I have already recorded, they seem to show that the nest is the habitual pairing-place of these Grebes.

After the seventh failure the female came off the nest, and the male bird shortly took her place. This was at 7. She then swam right away, and when I left about 7.40 she had not returned. On the third return of the male bird to the nest he dived, and came up with a large lump of weed in his bill, which he brought to the nest. On the fourth there was an incident with a Moor-hen. The latter stood just on the edge of the bank, which formed an abrupt grassy slope, and its presence seemed resented by the male Grebe, who swam towards it in a hostile manner. The Moor-hen retreated a little way up the bank, and