AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 283 



Drayton House by Mr. lanson on April 10, 1858, 

 and are preserved there ; these two birds show no sign 

 of maturity in the way of any crest or cheek-tufts, 

 and are in what 1 should call winter plumage On 

 the back of the case containing these birds, I found 

 in the (to me) well-known handwriting of B. Lead- 

 beater, who stuffed and mounted them, " Fodiceps 

 cornutus, 6 , Penn,,'' with the date above given. 

 The late Captain Ashby Ashby sent me a note of 

 having shot two of these Grebes at Naseby Reservoir 

 on February 16 and 19, 1876. Two, apparently a 

 pair, of this species were killed upon Oundle or 

 Biggin Pond in February 1879, and most kindly 

 presented to me, stuffed and cased, by the Rev. 

 Edward Moore, of Benefield Rectory, in October 

 1883. I have several times distinctly identified this 

 Grebe on the Nen during the prevalence of floods in 

 the winter and early spring, and a Grebe, that I 

 cannot attribute to any but the present species, flew 

 round our boat close to Lilford on July 30, 1887. I 

 have recorded this occurrence in the ' Zoologist ' for 

 that year, and will only repeat here that I am 

 perfectly certain that the bird in question was 

 neither a Great Crested Grebe, or a Dabchick, and I 

 have in my own mind an almost equally strong 

 conviction, from pretty intimate acquaintance with 

 the Eared Grebe, Podiceps nigricoUis, that it was not 

 of that species. 



With the nesting-habits of the Lesser Crested 

 Grebe I have no personal acquaintance ; there is, 

 so far as I am aware, no authentic record of its 

 breeding in any part of the British Islands, although 

 it is said to be not infrequently met with in the 

 Shetlands and other north Scottish localities as late 



