BIRDS OF ICELAND 139 



_ [Podicipes nigricollis (Brehm). 

 Black-necked or Eared Grebe. 



Native names : ' Sefond ' (partim), and, according to 

 Grondal, ' FlorgoSi ' and ' Flora.' 



There has been orievous confusion between this bird 

 and the last, owing to the use of P. auritus by Gmelin, 

 Latham, etc., as a name for this bird, it having pre- 

 viously been given by Linnaeus to the Sclavonian. I 

 cannot satisfy myself that this species really occurs in 

 Iceland, which, indeed, it is not likely to do, as its range 

 in Europe is southern, and tlie centre of it nearer to the 

 Mediterranean than the North Atlantic. I have seen 

 hundreds of Sclavonian Grebes in Iceland, but though 

 I habitually examine with glasses every Grebe I meet 

 in that country, I have never been able to detect one 

 of the present species. Faber described it, however, as 

 common in the north and west, especially at Myvatn 

 (where there are numbers of the Sclavonian), and every 

 one, almost, has followed his lead. Young Sclavonians 

 are very much smaller than adults, and this has, I 

 think, been a factor in the confusion. I do not assert 

 that P. nigricollis does not occur, but only that I can 

 find no satisfactory proof of it doing so. It is a smaller 

 bird (length 12 inches, wing 5 inches), the head and 

 neck in summer are Uach, with a small tuft of golden- 

 red feathers behind the eye ; the flanks are dull chest- 

 nut ; the secondaries are entirely white, and there is 

 a good deal of this colour on the three or four inner- 



