300 THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE 
Another writer in the same magazine! says that he saw a large 
the dark red throat. 
This species, like the rest of the genus, obtains its food by diving; 
when pursued it rarely tries to escape by taking wing, though it _ 
has the power of flying with great rapidity. During the breeding _ 
season especially, it often flies about over the water with its long — 
neck outstretched, and uttering a wailing scream. 
I am informed by a friend, that while fishing in a boat in calm j | 
water off the coast of North Devon, he has many times seen Divers 
pass through the water, at a considerable depth below, propelling 
themselves by a free and active use of their wings. 
From October to May only these Divers frequent our coast.. i 
Towards the end of spring they withdraw northwards and build — 
their nests, of coarse grass and other herbs, close to the edge of a 
fresh-water loch. They lay two eggs, and the male is said to take 
his turn in the office of incubation. Many stay to breed in the © 
Orkneys and Outer Hebrides, and in Ireland. 
PODICIPEDIDZ 
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE 
PODICIPES CRISTATUS 
Bill longer than the head, reddish, the tip white ; distance from the nostril 
to the tip seventeen or eighteen lines; cheeks white; crest and ruff 
dark brown and chestnut; upper plumage dark brown; secondaries 
white; breast and under parts silky white; bill brownish red ; irides 
red; feet dull green. Female—crest and ruff less conspicuous, ‘colours 
generally less bright. Young birds have neither crest nor ruff. Length 
twenty-one inches. Eggs white. 
THE Great Crested Grebe is thus described by Sir Thomas Browne, 
under the name of Loon: ‘A handsome and specious fowl, cris- 
tated, and with divided fin-feet placed very backward. They 
come about April, and breed in the broad waters ; so making their 
nest in the water, that their eggs are seldom dry while they are set 
on.’ Fifty years ago the Loon continued to be so common on 
the Broads of Norfolk that eighteen or twenty might be counted 
together. It is more or less resident in England and Wales—in 
the meres of the Midlands and the lakes of Breconshire, and has 
lately bred ‘in the vicinity of the Clyde. | 
The movements of this bird in the water are described as most 
graceful ; in swimming it vies with the Swan, and it is a skilful 
diver. As seen perched upin a museum its form is ungainly, but 
1 Zoologist, vol. ix. p. 3084. 
number in Norway during the breeding season, but not one without! ia 
ng ee 
