DABCHICK, the popular name of the little grebe (Podicipes fluviatilis) a member of the family Colymbidae. The dabchick has a wide range in the Old World and in Great Britain is partially migratory. The frosts of winter drive it from ponds and rivers to the tidal estuaries. See GREBE.
D'ABERNON, EDGAR VINCENT, 1ST VISCOUNT (1857- ), British diplomatist, was born at Slinfold, Sussex, on Aug. 19, 1857, the youngest son of Sir Frederick Vincent, it th Bart., of Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey. He was educated at Eton and entered the army, but in 1880 was appointed private secretary to Sir Edmond Fitzmaurice, then commissioner for Eastern Rumelia. In 1882 he was sent to Constantinople as the representative of Great Britain, Holland and Belgium on the council of the Otto man public debt, of which in 1883 he became president. In 1883 he went to Cairo as financial adviser to the Egyptian Government, remaining there until 1889, when he returned to Constantinople as governor of the Imperial Ottoman Bank, a post which he re signed in 1897. In 1887 he received the K.C.M.G. Sir Edgar Vincent entered Parliament in 1899 as Conservative member for Exeter, but Iost this seat in 1906. In 1914 he was raised to the peerage as Baron D'Abernon, and during the World War was chairman of the central liquor control board. During the difficult post-war period from 1920 to 1926 he was ambassador to Ger many. His own financial experience helped the settlement of the debt question under the Dawes Plan, and the atmosphere of good feeling and friendliness in the British embassy under his direction facilitated the rapprochement of Locarno. In Jan. 1926 he was made a viscount.
DA CAPO (It.) or d.c., "from the beginning," a direction used in musical scores to indicate that the first part of a composition is to be repeated. A similar direction, equally often employed, is dal segno (or d.s.), meaning "from the sign," indicating the return to a S, or some similar character, placed either at the beginning or at some other point in the piece.