TJieir Eggs and Nests. 205 



eggs are laid, which are ahnost white when newly 

 dropped, but soon become so stained from constant 

 contact with wet and decaying vegetable substances 

 as to be any colour rather than white. They are 

 about 2^ inches long, by IJ broad. The eggs, in the 

 absence of the parent bird, are usually found covered 

 with portions of some water vegetable; and the owner, 

 on being disturbed on her nest, always dives away 

 from it. The first lessons of the young Loon in diving 

 are taken beneath the literal " shelter of their mother's 



RED-NECKED (^'K^^Y.—iPodiceps rubricolHs). 



Not 80 common as the Grebe last named, and more 

 frequently met with on salt water, though not usually 

 far from some estuary or inland arm of the sea. It 

 is not known to have bred in this country. 



SCLAVONIAN GREBE— (P^^/V^/^ auriius ; 

 formerly, P. covfiuiiis). 



Dusky Grebe, Horned Grebe. — Rather a rare bird 

 in the summer, and not common at any period of the 

 year ; nor has it ever been known to breed with us. 



EARED G^'E'EE—iPodiceps nigricollis ; formerly, 

 P. auriius). 



The rarest of all the Grebes. It occurs, however, 

 from time to time, and I knew of one instance in 

 Essex some sixty-live years ago in which one of these 

 birds was taken from a Water Rat's hole into which 

 it had been seen to creep for shelter. 



