7IO LITTLE GREBE. 



The nest— which is somewhat large, considering the size of the 

 bird — is composed of and moored to aquatic plants ; and in it from 

 4-6 eggs are deposited between April and August ; two clutches 

 being often produced in the season. Their colour is white, until 

 stained adventitiously; and their average measurements are i'6 by 

 I in. ; the sitting bird, on leaving the nest, covers them with weeds 

 plucked by her bill. The food is usually small fish, insects and 

 vegetable matter, but in winter marine animals are often consumed. 

 Like other Grebes, this species swallows feathers ; while it carries 

 its young on its back, as already described. The note is a whit, 

 whit. 



The adult in summer (represented swimming in the foreground) 

 has the head, neck and upper parts dark brown ; very little white 

 on the secondaries ; chin black ; cheeks, throat and sides of the 

 neck reddish-chestnut; under parts chiefly greyish-white; flanks 

 dusky-brown ; bill horn-colcur, yellowish-green at the gape ; irides 

 reddish-brown; legs and toes dull green. Length 9*5; wing 

 4-25 in. In winter the chin is white, and the head and neck are 

 ash- or clove-brown, the general colour being paler. The young are 

 still lighter in tint. 



In ' Research ' for January ist 1889, Mr. R. Newstead, curator of 

 the Chester Museum, called attention to some interesting points in 

 the anatomy of this Grebe and some others. The fibula is not 

 fused to the tibia, but is connected with it along the whole length 

 by a very strong ligament, so that by taking hold of the foot the 

 tibia can be made to rotate ; while there is a perforated and grooved 

 bone at the back of the tarso-metatarsus, which has three perfora- 

 tions and carries eight tendons. For diagrams illustrative of the 

 above I am indebted to Dr. ^^^ H. Uobie, of Chester. 



An example of the American Pied-billed Grebe {Podilymbus 

 podiceps) — so young that it exhibited longitudinal stripes on the 

 neck — was exhibited by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe at the meeting of 

 the Zoological Society of London on June 21st 1S81, and was 

 stated to have been killed near Weymouth in the previous January ! 

 {See Mr. J, E. Harting's remarks in 'The Zoologist," 18S1, p. 334.) 



