ANSERES. 



73 



Mekgus. Linn. 



Bill, as long as or longer than the head, culmen elevated, convex towards the tip, which 

 is hooked, and araied with a broad nail ; the lateral margins of both mandibles serrated 

 with widely-set teeth, all pointing backwards; wings moderate, with first and second quills 

 nearly equal. 



North temperate regions, and restricted in the south, so far as at present known, to the 

 Auckland Islands. 



106. MergUS aUStralis. Homhr. et Jacq. 



Meeganseb. 



Above, blackish-brown ; paler and with whitisli tips on the sides of the body ; second- 

 aries, crossed by a broad band of white ; throat, fulvous-white ; sides of the head and whole 

 of the neck, rufous-brown ; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, grejish-brown, largely 

 mixed and varied with white ; bill and feet, reddish-brown. 



L., 20; W., 7; B., 2-25; T., 1.75. 



Hah. — Auckland Islands. 



COLTMBID^. DiTERs. 



Bill, long and straight ; tail, very short ; tarsi, short and flattened ; toes, long, the 

 three anterior ones more or less united by a membrane ; hind toe, short, membraned. 



PoDICEPS. Lath. 



Wings, short, pointed ; toes, long, margined on the sides and united at the base to the 

 middle one ; hind toe, short, strongly lobed. 

 All parts of the world. 



107. Podiceps cristatus. L. 



Crested Grebe, 



Above, brown ; below, white ; top of the head, black, with a double crest; chin, white; 

 ruff on the neck, rufous, lipjjed witii black ; shoulders, and a band on the wings, white. 

 The neck and breast are in some tinted with rufous-brown. 

 L., 22 ; W., 775 ; B., 2-75 ; T., 275. 



Egg.- — At first greenish-white, then jellow-brown ; length, 235 ; breadth, 1'6. 

 Hab. — South Island, Australia, Europe, Asia, North America, South Africa. 



" Podiceps cristatus is found at all seasons of the year upon Lake 

 Guyon, a small lake in the Nelson Province, lying close under the 

 Spencer mountain-range, and upon the borders of which the station- 



