390 



l>Ol)K'll'KI>ri).K. 



/,/// (m>wnisl,-llr,h,,-r,',l, chnen olive : !",,, and feH olin'-yrlh^n, ,ol,-s of firt ami ontrr sides of the 

 tarxa, olive-black : outer ed.je and centre of toes dull olire-ldack : iris crunson. Total length in the 

 /lesh .'Do inches, iriinj T, bill 1'7, tarsus ;?-J. 



AliUl.T FKMAI,!".. — similar in. iiliiinai/e to the male. 



Adult malk and adult femalk, in non-lirefilin,n pluiiiai^e. — AV,<,„,/,/« //(. Ureedunj jiliiinfiije, 

 bat is destitate of the len.jthened oeeipilal lofts aadfrdlouthe lork, thr top of the head and. hind-neck 

 beiiit/ dark ashy leroan, lik' the back. 



Distnlmiion.—l^onh-weslei-n Australia, Northern Territory, ( jueensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania. 



a^N favourable situations the Tippet Grebe is sparin.^ly distributed over the greater portion of 

 J_ the Australian continent, and likewise the whole of Tasmania. It is the largest and most 

 beautiful species of the genus, and was first made known in Australia by Gould, who described 



it in the " l^'roceedin^s of the Zoological Society 

 of London," in 1^44, as Fodlitps aiisfrcdis, but 

 authorities have pronounced it to be precisely 

 similar to the well known Colviiibiis ensfatiis, des- 

 cribed by Linnaus in 1776. 



It haunts alike estuaries of rivers, salt-water 

 bays, inlets, and inland open spaces of water in 

 reed-surrounded lakes, backwaters and rivers. 



Near Sydney it is occasionally obtained on the 

 IJotany dams, parts of Cook River, and Naria- 

 been Lagoon, and also further afield on the bays 

 and inlets of the liawk'esbury Kiver. A very 

 line specimen in the llesh was presented to the 

 Trustees of the .Australian Museum on the loth 

 November, 190S, by l\Ir. H. Carpenter. The 

 bird was caught a few days before at Mount 

 Colah, near Ilornsby, by the donor, who found it 

 roaming in the bush, and eventually jammed 

 itself between two large rocks on the hillside, about a mile away from the nearest water, a salt- 

 water inlet. 



From Melbourne Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me : — " Tippet Grebe (Podiceps cristatits), 

 although often seen in Hobson Bay, are inore numerous on the inland swamps, where they 

 breed. Considering the shortness of their wings it is remarkable how fast they lly. I saw 

 several of them on clay-pans three hundred miles from the coast, in North western Australia, and 

 they were numerous at Lake Way, Western Australia." 



Dr. Lonsdale Holden wrote from North-western Tasmania as follows: — "On the 22nd 

 August, iSg2, a Tippet Grebe {I'odiicfs niislralis) was shot off the wharf at Circular Head, and 

 brought to me ; it was a female. Four more were seen off the wharf the following day, and one, 

 an adult male, was also shot and brought to me. In October, iSyS, I watched one fishing close 

 in shore off the west end of Bellerive Beach. It constantly dixed and reappeared nearly in the 

 same place." 



The food of this species consists of small salt and fresh-water molluscs, crustaceans and 

 small (ish, to which is sometimes added the softened ends of stalks of fresh-water plants. 



The nest is an irregular-shaped open stiucture formed of dead water plants and weeds, built 

 on the surface of the water of some lagoon or backwater, a Hoating mass attached to a few reeds 



TIPPKT GRKHE. 



