poDicEPs. 249 



open waters in the precincts of the sea, and finally venture out to 

 the margin of the ocean in quest of food and shelter, proceeding 

 leisurely towards milder climates, and spending the winter often 

 in small companies in bays and inlets, free from the influence of 

 severe frost ; in such situations they are averse to landing on the 

 shores, from their inability to travel far by land, in consequence of 

 the inconvenient and posterior situation of their feet, they therefore 

 only waddle and flounder along slowly over the surface, being unable 

 to rise on wing often from the level ground, though flying with ease 

 and facility for a short distance when once sufficiently elevated. In 

 storms, and near steep and surf-lashed shores, they frequently perish 

 on grounding, as they are unable often to regain the water beyond 

 the influence of the breakers, and left wrecked on the strand, they 

 commonly perish of hunger. In fact they never come to land but 

 for the purpose of breeding, and then select swampy and submerged 

 marshes, fixing their nests, which often float, to reeds and rank 

 herbage. This rude cradle is made of dry grass, and lined with 

 the down plucked from their own bodies, and of which, indeed, as 

 well as feathers, a portion is commonly found within their stomachs ', 

 an appetite, though depraved, which originates from the instinct 

 employed in lining the nest for the reception of the callow brood. 

 The eggs 3 to G, are covered also with this down, whenever they are 

 left, and the parent shows a strong attachment to her charge. The 

 young are covered at first with a beautifully spotted down, are soon 

 able to provide for themselves, and are at first carefully led into the 

 water by the example of the attentive parents. The mother even 

 swims sometimes with the young on her back, and snatches them from 

 danger, by diving with them under her wings. They feed on fish, 

 frogs, reptiles, aquatic coleoptera, and occasionally on water plants. 

 The species are spread over the whole world, but they have a 

 predilection for the high boreal climates, to which most of them 

 retire in summer to breed. 



Subgenus. — Podiceps. 



In the Grebes, common to both continents, the bill is slender 

 from the base, partly cylindric, and with the point straight and subu- 

 late : the nostrils are also elongated. The tarsus thinly compressed ; 

 and the inner and middle toe united by a membrane, only as far as 

 the first articulation. 



