Identifier: cassellsbookofbi04breh (find matches)
Title: Cassell's book of birds
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884 Jones, Thomas Rymer, 1810-1880
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London (etc.), Cassell, Petter and Galpin
Contributing Library: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
he little family as now one, now another of the young brood,tired with the exertion of swimming or of struggling against the rippling water, mount as to a resting-place on their mothers back; to see how gently, when they have recovered their strength, she returnsthem to the water; to hear the anxious plaintive notes of the little wanderers when they haveventured too far from the nest; to see their food laid before them by the old birds ; or to witness the 244 CASSELLS BOOK OF BIRDS. tenderness with which they are taught to dive. It is only when they arc eight days old that they arestrong enough to enter upon this last important part of their education, which is commenced in thefollowing manner :—-The mother bird at first swims towards her little (lock two or three times, holdingin her beak the proffered food ; but as they advance to receive it she gradually retires before them,and at last dives with it again and again, thus tempting the timid little creatures to follow her, and 0; i
Text Appearing After Image:
THE CRESTED GREBE (Podiceps crislatllS). ONE-FOURTH NATURAL SIZE. always at the end of the performance allowing the best swimmer to obtain the tempting prize as a rewardfor its exertions. The flesh of these birds is quite uneatable, but great quantities of them aredestroyed annually on account of their skins. THE LITTLE GREBE.The Little Grebe (Podiceps minor) is much more plentiful than the species last described. Itis a beautiful bird, measuring nine or ten inches in length and seventeen or eighteen in breadth, the THE DIVERS. 245 length of its wing being four inches. When in its nuptial dress, the plumage of the upper part ofthe body is brilliant black shimmering with brown, the under parts being greyish white, cloudedwith a darker shade; the throat and a place in the front of the eye are black; the head, sides ofthe neck, and throat, chestnut-brown; the eye is reddish brown ; the bridles yellowish green; thebeak yellow at its base and black towards its apex ; the external aspect of

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