PODICIPEDIDJ.. 



707 





■S^S' 



THE BLACK-NECKED OR EARED GREBE. 



PoDTciPES NiGRicoLLis, C. L. Brehm. 



This Crebe is rather smaller than the preceding species, and is 

 its very opposite as regards distribution ; for this is essentially a 

 southern bird which occasionally pushes its migrations in si)ring 

 and summer as far to the north-west as the British Islands, while 

 it also visits us — though far more rarely — in autumn and winter, 

 to escape the severe cold of the Continent. Birds in complete 

 breeding-dress have been obtained, at intervals, in most of our 

 southern counties, and rather plentifully in .Sutfolk and Norfolk ; 

 there is, indeed, strong presumptive evidence that the species has 

 bred in the latter, for Mr. E. T. Booth had "a full-plumaged adult 

 and a couple of downy mites " brought to him by a marshman 

 some years ago (C/. Tr. Norfolk & N. Nat. Soc. vol. iv. p. 416, foot- 

 note). As we continue northward, we find this Crebe becoming 

 scarcer, though it can be traced to the Orkneys ; but on the west 

 of Scotland the only authenticated occurrences appear to be those 

 of an adult on Loch Sunart in the spring of 1866 and a pair shot 

 at Castledykes pool on the Nith. A few instances are on record 

 from Cumberland, and one from the Isle of Man, but the bird is 

 undoubtedly rare on the west side of England ; while in Ireland two 



:; I :: 



