80 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



eggs of the Red-necked Grebe ; but in that case the other 

 dimensions always exceed the maximum of the latter species, so 

 that the eggs of the two birds cannot easily be confused. 



THE RED-NECKED GREBE. 

 (Podicipes rubricollis.)* 



Plate 22, Fig. 12. 



The Red-necked Grebe is a regular winter visitor to the British 

 Islands, being most numerous in severe seasons. It is almost a 

 circumpolar bird ; but the American ornithologists regard the birds 

 inhabiting their continent and East Siberia as specifically distinct 

 from those inhabiting Europe and West Siberia. In Scandinavia 

 it is a resident south of the Arctic circle, and is a common 

 summer visitor to Archangel, but it has not been recorded from 

 the lower valleys of the Petchora or the Ob. It breeds in 

 South-west Siberia, Turkestan, and the basins of the Caspian 

 and Black Seas. It does not appear to breed south of the valley 

 of the Danube, nor west of the valley of the Rhine, occurring 

 only on migration or in winter beyond these limits. 



The nests are sometimes placed in the recesses of the thick 

 reed-beds, but quite as often they can be seen at a considerable 

 distance, in localities where the reeds are only half-grown and 

 thinly sprinkled over the water. The nest is always floating, so 

 that it can rise or fall with the water, and is considerably less 

 than that of the Coot. It is somewhat carelessly made of reeds 

 and decayed water-plants, and near each nest is a sort of sham 

 nest or foundation of a nest, merely a few reeds laid together, 

 which is used as a roosting-place for the parent which, for the 

 time being, is not occupied with the incubation of the eggs. 



Fresh eggs may be obtained during the first half of May. The 

 number of eggs is usually three, often four, and they vary in 

 length from 2'1 to 1*9 inch, and in breadth from 1*4 to 1'25 

 inch. The ground-colour is green, but this is so coated over 

 with chalky-white, of a more or less irregular and rough texture, 

 that it can only be seen here and there. They are smaller than 

 eggs of the Great Crested Grebe, though both dimensions over- 



* Podicipes griseigena (Bodd.) — Saunders, Manual, p. 703. 



