532 PODICIPEDIDA# 
This bird breeds freely throughout the British Isles on 
sheltered lakes and ponds, both large and small, also along 
the margins of deep sluggish streams, overgrown with reeds 
and bulrushes. The nest may be situated far inland or near 
the coast, in the latter situation I have known the bird to 
breed about brackish ponds connected by a channel with 
the sea. 
This Grebe is somewhat less numerous in the northern 
counties of Scotland, though it is noteworthy that it breeds 
at an elevation of 2,000 feet in some districts in the High- 
lands. It is also resident on some of the larger islands of 
the western sea-board of Scotland. 
In Ireland it is a common breeding-species, and is abun- 
dant in summer along the Shannon and the great lakes 
passing through it. 
Geographical distribution.— Abroad, the Little Grebe 
breeds in many countries in Central and Southern Kurope, 
and in North Africa. Eastward it is generally distributed 
over Temperate Asia, breeding as far as Japan. It has not 
yet been recorded as nesting in Iceland, nor did Mr. F. 
Soburn find it in his recent expedition, though the Horned 
Grebe was very common. ‘The breeding- range in Kurope 
hardly extends north of the latitude of the Shetland Isles ; 
in Central Europe the bird occurs chiefly as a summer- 
migrant, though resident 1n the south as well as in Asia and 
in North Africa. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE. Adult male nuptial.—Front and top of head, 
hind-neck, back, scapulars, and wings, dark bronze-brown ; 
primaries, Sanna outer secondaries, chiefly brown; inner 
ones, marked with white ; cheeks, chin, and upper throat, 
iaekrene brown; lower fbroat: sides and front of neck, 
and back of cheeks, rich chestnut; breast and abdomen, 
silvery brownish shading to greyish-white ; flanks and rump, 
brownish, with an admixture of reddish-brown streaks. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar in plumage to the male. 
Adult winter, male and female—Chin and throat white ; 
cheeks, sides of head and neck, and upper breast, dull 
brownish-buff ; lower breast and abdomen, chiefly silvery 
white with a brownish shading on the flanks. and a grey 
shading on the under tail-coverts; otherwise similar to the 
nuptial plumage. 
