228 GREBES AND DIVERS 



costume. Immature birds have a plumage like the winter-dress of their 

 parents. Dark brown striped with white on the head and neck and 

 with much h'L;hter brown on the back is the distinctive Hvery of the 

 young in down, whose under-parts are white with dark brown flecks 

 and streaks on the throat. 



Considering that it breeds in the south of Norway, the Baltic, and 

 the north of Germany, it is somewhat surprising to find that this species 

 is not known to nest in the more northern districts of the British Isles. 

 Nevertheless, such is the case, and to sta\'-at-home Englishmen this 

 bird is chiefly known, in the living condition, as a winter-visitor to the 



eastern coast of England and 

 Scotland, from which it usually, 

 although not invariably, takes 

 its departure before the assump- 

 tion of its brilliant breeding- 

 livery. Generally it is far from 

 common even on the east coast, 

 but in one Januar}- ncarl\- thirty 

 were taken off Scarborough. 

 Although reported to be not 

 unfrequently seen in Cornwall, 

 on the west coast of the main- 

 land it is always a rare bird, 

 while in Ireland on I)' a few 

 examples have been recorded, 

 and these from the southern and 

 eastern coasts. From the south 

 KKu-NKCKED GRKBK. of Norway, thc Baltic, and 



northern Germany the breeding- 

 range of this handsome grebe stretches eastward across Russia to the 

 Caspian and Black Seas and thence into Turkestan, and possibly some- 

 what farther in thc same direction. In Manchuria and Japan, and 

 thence to Greenland and North America generally is found, however, a 

 grebe which, while slightly larger, is very closely allied to the red-necked 

 species, although it has received from ornithologists a distinctive title 

 of its own. Whether there be one or two species is immaterial, the 

 main fact being that grebes of the red-necked type have a circumpolar 

 distribution. Practically the habits of this grebe are identical with 

 those of its larger relative, and therefore need no special mention. The 

 length of the egg varies from a fifteenth less to a fifteenth more than 

 2 inches. 



HO WARD STUDIOS 



