268 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



Linn. Soc., 1888). As to the mode of progression on 

 land, see the careful observations made by Messrs. 

 Coward and Oldham in their recently published 

 volume on the " Birds of Cheshire," p. 248. 

 Weight, 2 lbs. 12 oz. to 3 lbs. 



RED-NECKED GREBE. Fodicipes griseigena (Boddsiert). 

 PI. 31, fig. 6. Length, 18 in.; bill, 1-5 in.; wing, 7 

 in. ; tarsus, 2 in. 



Breeding in Norway, Denmark, and North 

 Germany, this bird migrates to England in the 

 autumn, and on the east and south coasts is not 

 uncommon as a winter visitant.^ It sometimes 

 (though rarely) remains late enough in spring to 

 display the complete breeding plumage. I have 

 occasionally obtained specimens in Pagham Har- 

 bour, Sussex, in the winter plumage, but with a 

 few red feathers appearing here and there on the 

 throat. The irides and base of the beak were then 

 lemon-yellow, giving the bird a very striking ap- 

 pearance. The colour of the back, when the bird 

 is swimming away from the punt-gunner and very 

 low in the water, is so similar in tone to the dark 

 wavelets of the tidal harbours which it frequents, as 

 to render it at a short distance quite invisible but 

 for the upright carriage of the head and neck as 

 seen when it emerges from a dive. It is of rare 

 occurrence in Ireland, where a few examples have 

 been met with on the eastern and southern coasts. 



1 No fewer than twenty-eight were obtained off Scarborough in 

 Jan. 1891. {Zool, 1891, p. 193.) 



