Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/369

Rh growing, had more the appearance of driftage. Just where the one bird had lain, however, the weeds were thicker, and it certainly looked as though they had been added to. This suggests, of course, that here may be the beginning of a nest; yet of building it I have, as yet, seen no sign. Possibly the birds find pairing in the water difficult, if not impossible, and therefore choose for this purpose a natural foundation of weeds, to which they add when greater stability is needed.

April 25th.—Arrive at 6.30 a.m., and find the birds swimming about. In a little while they both swim to the same little belt of weeds, but if, as is probable, with the intention of pairing, this is not followed up. Several times they front each other in the water, and, with their snaky necks reared up, tâter a little with the beak, or make little tosses of their heads in the air.

It is pretty to see these Grebes drink, which they do with a little scoop of their bills on the water, raising, then, the head quickly, till the beak spears perpendicularly up at the sky.

8 o'clock.—The two have just swum to the weeds again, and one of them—I think, this time, the female—lies along amidst them, but without jumping up on to anything. There is nothing further, however, and they soon swim away. But very soon afterwards they return, and one—I think, the male—jumping up and lying along, the other, in a moment or two, follows, and pairing takes place. The second upspringing bird—the one that has just, apparently, performed the office and function of the male—now comes off the platform of weeds, passing forward along the body of the other one, and leaving him upon it. It certainly seems the smaller of the two, and when the other, shortly after, also takes the water, and both are together, this latter seems again, as before, to be the larger, and the one which I have always known and recognized as the male. I carefully keep the two separate with the glasses. A little while afterwards the birds again approach the weeds, and again the male (quite certainly) leaps up and lies along them. He evidently waits for the other—the female—but she this time does not comply. He comes down, follows her a little, they turn, he again leaps up, waits, looks round and waits, but to no purpose. Coming off again, he now (for the first time that I have yet seen) lays some