Birds from British East Africa and Uganda. 51 



yellow, greenish yellow in ? ; legs and toes black and olive- 

 green, black on outside in ? , Stomach contained aquatic 

 insects. Very common.] 



39. Podiceps cristatus infuscatus. African Great Crested 

 Grebe. (Text-figure 2 B.) 



Podiceps infuscatus Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civ. Genov. (2) i. 

 1884., p. 251 : Lago Kilole (Adda Galla). 



a. ^ ad. Lake Naivasha, 6700 ft. Dec. 4. 



Total length in flesh : 23^ inches. Wing: 187 mm. 



In full summer dress. 



This is quite a distinct subspecies, and besides having the 

 upper parts and the flanks darker than in P. cristatus 

 cristatus Linn. (Syst. Nat. 12th ed. i. 1766, p. 222 : Europe), 

 as pointed out by Salvadori and recognised by Sharpe (cf. 

 Ibis, 1892, p. 545), has no trace of a superciliary streak, as 

 was apparently fiirst noticed by Guruey {cf. Ibis, 1885, p. 350). 

 This character is as noticeable in winter as in summer dress. 



The figure of the head in Stark & Sclater's ' Fauna of South 

 Africa,' iv. 1906, p. 510, does not truly represent either one 

 or the other ; according to the artist, Mr. Gronvold, it was 

 drawn from a South African specimen, and a faint line, 

 visible on the drawing, has been pointed out to me as meant 

 to separate the white lores from the dark feathering over 

 the eye. 



This same figure has been used in C. J. Patten's 'Aquatic 

 Birds of Gt. Britain and Ireland,' 1906, p. 515, and 

 emphasises once again the folly of publishing in any work 

 figures or plates of a species that have not been drawn from 

 a specimen taken in the country or that part of it to which 

 the work alludes. 



Range. The African Great Crested Grebe is probably found 

 over the greater part of Africa, except possibly Algeria and 

 Tunisia, where it is replaced by the European bird. 



If further evidence is required to show that the African 

 bird is distinct from the European, it is that during the 

 winter months in the Northern Hemisphere, when the 



E 2 



