528 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
a proportion of those about the South Devon coast 
in the winter should be in this plumage. Younger 
birds in their first winter have little or no ear-tufts 
or frill. The chicks after they are first hatched 
‘have their bills mottled black and white; the head 
and neck ornamented with long dark stripes on a 
ground colour of dull greyish white; the upper sur- 
face of the body is dark brown, with longitudinal 
stripes of light brown; the whole of the under sur- 
face 1s white.” * 
According to Meyer’s coloured plate, the egg is of 
a very pale greenish white. 
ScLAVONIAN GREBE, Podiceps cornutus. There 
are but few instances, I believe, of this bird having 
occurred in this county. There is one stuffed speci- 
men in the late Mr. Esdaile’s small collection, which 
that gentleman told me he had shot in his pond 
at Cotheleston some years ago during some hard 
weather in the winter. I also saw one in the 
Museum at Taunton, in the flesh, which had been 
placed in Mr. Bidgood’s hands for preservation: it 
had been killed in the marsh in the middle of 
February, 1865. These are the only two specimens 
of which I have a personal knowledge: they were 
both in winter plumage—the ‘Dusky Grebe” of 
Bewick. 
This bird frequents both the sea and inland 
* Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 409. 
