692 



APPENDIX. 



[No. V. 



legs are black, naked near an inch above the knee ; the tarse an inch and a quarter 

 long, sharp, with a membrane before and at the back ; the three fore toes lobed, with 

 small curved black claws ; the centre toe the longest, and united at the base for a 

 short distance to the outer ; hind toe three-eighths of an inch long and membranous. 

 The specimen has much the appearance of being in its breeding dress, and having its 

 plumage of that state nearly complete ; the irregular disposition of the chestnut feathers 

 on the back leads to a supposition, however, that some further change was wanting to 

 make that part perfect. From the character of the feet and the general figure of the 

 bird, it is decidedly allied to the Phalaropes, and is consequently placed in that genus. 



V 



M. Cuvier, in his Regne Animal, separated the two only species then known into 

 two genera, Phalaropus and Lobipes ; there is a marked difference in the bills of the 

 two birds which will certainly justify their separation ; and if they are to be divided, 



the present bird, being intermediate between them, will not perhaps agree sufficiently 

 to be united with either, thus a third genus must necessarily be created ; but in this 

 publication, it appears most expedient to consider all as belonging to one genus. 



Podiceps Rubricollis. Red-necked Grebe. 



Though the various writers on Birds have noticed the Red-necked Grebe and its 

 European habitats, especially that it has occasionally been killed in Great Britain, none 

 of them has mentioned it as a native of North America ; the writer of these memoranda 

 had received specimens of it from Hudson's Bay, before the specimen sent home by 

 Captain Franklin was put into his hands. Wilson has not given an account of any 

 one Grebe in his work, but though some species are sufficiently common to the south- 

 wards, yet it is probable that this does not reach far below Canada. The specimen 

 under description is fine, and seems to have been taken from a mature individual. It 

 measures twenty-eight inches in length ; the bill from the opening of the mandibles 

 is two inches and a half long, the upper mandible black, the lower horn colour ; the 

 top of the head is a deep black, which is continued, though it is less intense, along 

 the back of the neck to the back, which with the whole upper part3 is dark brown, 

 the throat and lower half of the neck from the lower mandible to the extent of about 

 two inches and a half are a very pale drab colour ; this abruptly terminates in a ferru- 

 ginous marking which occupies the whole of the neck except the back part, and 

 spreads over the breast, but it is lighter and more glossy in this lower part ; the under 



secondaries 



white. 



gri 



Podiceps Carolinensis. Pied-bill Grebe. 



species 



All 



* * J " A 



that has hitherto been published respecting it has been derived from Catesby's figure 



