CHESTED GREBES.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 May 1922, Page 4

CHESTED GREBES.

(By J. llj; v>ini; E.J..M., K.Z.S., in t • 1 ! • ii 11 '1 hv.es.”.> (Vs o.! wki-li nr--' amongst ti,' besl di'.Mig i, i. ds in Now Zealand, lira fairly ; . ! in hake laiithe, South Wcm :. i. ...it i uir Hosts arc so noil hid • ii i!i t i!:nny days’ search lour the I ;j s u. l : .j lake, probably, would fail lo dis -lose them, Mr Stuart Sutherland !ad dis;.|)i. ,inting search for tlie elf . v,' i por yellowish blown 0:,.. ill: t s. v ies oil bake .'•lave - - , .1 ■■ - 1 f-’a 1 inland from Moss' n, Salt !■ d. He spent two week’s ■:n li e lilies', lie :*iw at 1 *ast lliee : : 1 1 •■( '>. s and watched llnni very clos Iy. b:,t. had no luck in r.'ga d lo either nests or eggs, except that he found one old ms 1 . Several days’ search in a boat in the beautiful bays of bake lan*be, . where raupo , "rows rank, and the I,ranches of lallcn tr.- s in i’ e wider su]iply .-uitahle nesting phu-.s, gave fee same ;osults. On hake Ouycin, which lit s in a basin under the Spencer Mounhiins in the southern part of the Nelson Province, crested grebes make their nlsts near, the hanks. Pond weeds, which grow in the lake, are used mostly in building the nests. The weeds are dived for, and are massed until the nests are raised slightly above the surface of the water. Both male and femal- take part in the work i f incubation. Host of it seems to he done by the female, who is relieve 1 by the male w! cn she leaves the nest to uh.aiii food. The crested grebe’s diving (lowers have led to a belief, often akir.ned on tie West Coast, that when one is fired at and it sees the smoko or hears the report, it dives before the bullet or the shot reaches it. Without exaggeration, members of the species dive amazingly quick, and stay tinder the surface for a long time. Black swans’ nests are found more easily than crested grebes’ nests on bake lanthc, because they are not , so well hidden-, and are larger. They are made solidly of pieces ol raupo, leaver and twigs six inches long. Each nest is about lure" feet long and two fret broad. The ton is about a foot above the surface, and the eggs arc laid in a light hollow. r i ho site is amongst raupo or rushes near the hanks, in shallow water, on which the nest finals.