I suppose, Grebe, from the French, is not in
Johnson, nor do any of my books tell me what it means. I retain it,
however, as being short, not ugly, and well established in two
languages. We may think of it as formed from gre, and meaning 'a nice
bird.' The specialities of the whole class, easily remembered, are,
first, that they have chestnut-leaf feet; secondly, that their legs are
serrated behind with a double row of notches--(why?); thirdly, that
they have no tails; fourthly, that they have, most of them, very fine
and very comic crests, tufts, tippets, and other variously applied
appendages to their heads and chins, so that some are called 'crested,'
some 'eared,' some 'tippeted,' and so on; but the least of them, our
proper Dabchick, displays no absurdity of this sort, and I have the
less scruple in distinguishing it from others. I find, further, in
Stanley's classes, the Grebes placed among the short-winged birds, and
made to include all the divers; but he does not say how short their
wings are; and his grouping them with guillemots and puffins is
entirely absurd, all their ways and looks, and abodes, being those of
ducks. We can say no more of them as a family, accordingly, until we
know what a duck is;--and I go on to the little pet of them, whose ways
are more entirely its own.

103. Strangely, the most interesting fact (if _fact_ it be) that it
builds a floating nest, gains scarcely more than chance notice from its
historians. Here is Mr. Gould's account of it: "The materials composing
this raft or nest are weeds and aquatic plants carefully heaped
together in a rounded form; it is very large at the base, and is so
constantly added to, that a considerable portion of it becomes
submerged; at the same time it is sufficiently buoyant to admit of its
saucer-like hollow top being always above the surface. In this wet
depression five or six eggs are laid. The bird, always most alert, is
still more so now, and scarcely ever admits of a near examination of
the nest-making, or of a view of the eggs. In favorable situations,
however, and with the aid of a telescope, the process may be watched;
and it is not a little interesting to notice with what remarkable
quickness the dabchick scratches the weeds over her eggs with her feet,
when she perceives herself observed, so as not to lead even to the
suspicion that any were deposited on the ill-shapen floating mass. This
work of an instant displays as much skill in deception