456 BRITISH BIRDS. 



winters on the Mekran coast, in Baluchistan, and in India, a few probably- 

 remaining to breed. It has not been recorded from South-eastern Siberia 

 or the interior of China, but it winters on the coasts of Japan and South 

 China. It is not recorded from the islands of the Malay Archipelago, 

 apparently avoiding the tropics, like its congener the Little Grebe. It is 

 rather a remarkable fact that the Australian and the New Zealand birds, 

 so completely isolated as they appear to be from the rest, should not 

 present any difference sufficient to entitle them to siibspecific distinction. 



To countries where the winters are severe the Great Crested Grebe is a 

 summer ^asitor. In Central Germany it usually arrives late in jNIarch, in 

 North Germany it is seldom seen before April, and north of the Gulf of 

 Finland it arrives early in May. It remains at its breeding-grounds until 

 the lakes begin to freeze, when it collects into flocks and migrates south- 

 wards to the coast. During winter these poor birds are remorselessly 

 persecuted for the sake of their silky breasts, which form an important 

 article of commerce as trimmings for ladies' dresses. Grebe-hunting, 

 especially on salt water, is said to be capital sport, and many writers have 

 devoted their pens to its glorification. The diving-powers of this bird are 

 unequalled ; the attention of the shooter is always strained to the utmost ; 

 in no kind of shooting is less time allowed for taking aim ; and if small 

 bags are made, no sport oft'ers less of the weary waiting for a shot which is 

 so tedious. Although the bird seldom takes wing when pursued, it is not 

 unfrequently seen flying over the water at its breeding-grounds, sometimes 

 at a considerable height. Its mode of flight exactly resembles that of a 

 Duck — long neck extended, short wings moving with great rapidity and 

 some noise, and outstretched feet doing duty for a tail. It is rarely, if 

 ever, seen on the ground, and can only shuffle along with the greatest 

 difficulty. Its food is entirely procured in the water, and consists of 

 water-beetles and other aquatic insects, small fish, small frogs, and mollusks. 

 The seeds and tender shoots of aquatic plants are also often found in its 

 stomach; but instead of small stones or gravel, numbers of its own 

 feathers plucked from the ventral region are mixed with its food. It is 

 not known that this curious habit, which is more or less common to all 

 the Grebes, is intended to assist digestion, but it has been remai'ked by 

 many ornithologists in widely difterent localities — Naumann (father and 

 son), Meves (father and son), Yarrell, Thompson, Macgilli\Tay, &c. Its 

 ordinary alarm-note is a loud clear kek, kek; but at the pairing-time 

 another note, the call-note, may be heard — a loud, grating, guttural sound, 

 like the French word croix. 



The Great Crested Grebe is decidedly a gregarious bird. When I was 

 stopping at Stolp, in Pomerania, three years ago. Dr. Holland was kind 

 enough to pilot me to the Lantow See, a lake about four square miles in 

 extent, and surrounded on three sides by pine-forests. At one end of the 



