GRASS-QUIT—GREBE 381 
applied by Gould (Handb. B. Austral. i. pp. 399, 400) to two 
species of Australian birds which he referred to the genus 
Spheneacus of Strickland (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1841, p. 28), the type of 
which is the Motacilla africana of Gmelin and bird known in the 
Cape Colony as “Idle Jack” and “ Lazy Dick” (Layard, B. S. Afr. 
p- 96). Other species from various localities, and especially one 
from New Zealand, where it is known as the Fern-bird, have been 
assigned to the same genus, but whether rightly or not remains to 
be shewn. One of the Australian species, S. granvineus, has been 
generically separated by Prof. Cabanis as Poodytes. Dr. Sharpe 
(Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 93) includes Spheneacus among the 
Timeludx, but any attempt to arrange these birds must at present 
be guesswork, and it is quite likely that their association is due 
only to their outward resemblance. They mostly have their tail- 
feathers stiff in the shaft and the webs not connected ; the plumage 
above is striated, and they skulk in thick grass so as to be seldom 
seen, flying but a short way when forced to take wing. 
GRASS-QUIT, applied in Jamaica to some species of the genus 
Phonipava, or, as some have it, Hucthia, apparently belonging to the 
Family Hmberizidx, one of which, P. bicolor, of wide range in the 
Antilles, shews itself in Florida. 
GRAUCALUS, Cuvier’s name for a genus of birds, to which 
have been assigned a score of species, found from West Africa east- 
ward to the coast of China in the north and Tasmania in the south, 
while one occasionally strays to New Zealand, and for those 
inhabiting Australia the name has been Anglified by Gould. The 
genus is generally referred to the Campephagide ; but its position 
must be regarded as uncertain. ‘The Australian species are said 
to be subject to several changes of plumage, that of the young, 
assumed after leaving the nest, differing as much from that of the 
nestling as from that of the adult; but as a rule the plumage is 
mostly grey, diversified by black and white. 
GRAY (Icelandic Grdjnd), a name of the GADWALL (Willughby, 
Orn. (Lat.) p. 287) now perhaps obsolete. 
GREBE (French Grebe), the generally accepted name for all the 
birds of the Family Podicipedidz,' belonging to the group Pygopodes 
of Illiger, members of which inhabit almost all parts of the world. 
Some systematic writers have distributed them into several so-called 
genera, but, with one exception, these seem to be insufficiently 
defined, and here it will be enough to allow but two—Podicipes and 
1 Often, but erroneously, written Podicipide. The word Podiceps, as com- 
monly spelt, being a contracted form of the original Podictpes (cf. Gloger, Journal 
fiir Ornithologie, 1854, p. 430, note), a combination of podex, podicis, and pes, 
pedis, its further compounds must be in accordance with its derivation. 
