GRASS-QUIT— GREBE 381 



ajDplied by Gould {Handh. B. Austral, i. pp. 399, 400) to two- 

 species of Australian birds which he referred to the genus 

 Sphenceacus of Strickland (Proc. Zool. Soc. 184:1, p. 28), the type of 

 which is the Motacilla africana of Gmelin and bird known in the 

 Cape Colony as " Idle Jack " and " Lazy Dick " (Layard, B. S. Afr. 

 p. 9G). Other species from various localities, and especially one 

 from New Zealand, where it is known as the Fern-bird, have been 

 assigned to the same genus, but whether rightly or not remains to 

 be shewn. One of the Australian species, S. gramineus, has been 

 generically separated by Prof. Cabanis as Poodytes. Dr. Sharpe 

 {Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 93) includes Sphenoeacus among the 

 Timeliidse, but any attempt to arrange these birds must at present 

 be guesswork, and it is quite likely that their association is due 

 only to their outward resemblance. They mostly have their tail- 

 feathers stiff in the shaft and the webs not connected ; the plumage 

 above is striated, and they skulk in thick grass so as to be seldom 

 seen, flying but a short way when forced to take wing. 



GRASS-QUIT, applied in Jamaica to some species of the genus 

 Phonipava, or, as some have it, Euethia, apparently belonging to the 

 Family Emherizidx, one of which, P. hicolor, of wide range in the 

 Antilles, shews itself in Florida. 



GRAUCALUS, Cuvier's name for a genus of birds, to which 

 have been assigned a score of species, found from West Africa east- 

 Avard to the coast of China in the north and Tasmania in the south, 

 Avhile one occasionally strays to New Zealand, and for those 

 inhabiting AustraKa the name has been Anglified by Gould. The 

 genus is generally referred to the Campephagidse ; but its position 

 must be regarded as uncertain. The Australian species are said 

 to be subject to several changes of plumage, that of the young, 

 assumed after leaving the nest, diflfering as much from that of the 

 nestling as from that of the adult ; but as a rule the plumage is 

 mostly grey, diversified by black and white. 



GRAY (Icelandic Ch'd<!>nd), a name of the Gadwall (Willughby, 

 Orn. (Lat.) p. 287) now perhaps obsolete. 



GREBE (French Grhhe), the generally accepted name for all the 

 birds of the Family Podicipedidx,^ belonging to the group Pygopodes 

 of Illiger, members of which inhabit almost all parts of the world. 

 Some systematic writers have distributed them into several so-called 

 genera, but, with one exception, these seem to be insufficiently 

 defined, and here it will be enough to allow but two — Podicipes and 



^ Often, but erroneously, written Fodicipidse. The word Podiceps, as com- 

 monly spelt, being a contracted form of the original Podicipes {cf. Gloger, Journal' 

 fur Ornithologie, 1854, p. 430, note), a combination of podex, podicis, and pes,, 

 pedis, its further compounds must be in accordance with its derivation. 



