Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/485

Rh at all busied themselves with it. Assuming the nest to be the ordinary one in which the eggs will be laid, then it has been built earlier than it was the previous year—at least than the one which I first saw. Also, it differs in hardly being raised above the surface of the water—no more, in fact, than a floating weed—so that it is undiscernible, unless when standing just over it, whilst the other was quite conspicuous.

May 5th.—At the water just after 7 a.m. (having had to walk), and find the two birds separated by some distance. The male is near me, but soon works back to the female, and, when they meet, they utter the curious, low, quacking kind of note. They are now floating idly on the water. Each time I see them together, or even apart, I am more struck with the superior size of the male. His body is larger, his neck thicker and held habitually higher, his crest finer and thicker, his whole appearance more striking. It would not be easy for me, now, to mistake one for the other through the glasses, even at a considerable distance, nor have I ever, in fact, had a real doubt except when I was a long way off. The two are now fishing, and very successfully, for they often bring a fish up and swallow it on the surface.

It is very funny to see not only the foot, but the whole leg of one of these Grebes lifted right into the air, and shaken backwards and forwards—waggled about. This has just happened with the hen.

At a little past eight the two have fronted each other in the water, and toyed in the usual manner. But nothing more has come of this, and it is now near 9.30. It is a cold ungenial morning.

At 10 I leave, nothing more having taken place, or seeming likely to take place, between the birds. Yesterday I was not able to come owing to headache.

May 9th.—I am at the water at 7.30 this morning, and find the Grebes swimming about together. Twice they front each other in the water, stretch up their necks, and toy a little with their beaks; and a third time they do this less definitely. But they do not go to the nest. At 8.10 I notice them diving somewhat excitedly, as it seems to me, one going down as soon as the other does, and sometimes—especially once—with a little splash.