RED-NECKED GREBE. 29y 



before the breeding-season, though it occasionally remains 

 till it has assumed the plumage of that period before be- 

 taking itself to Holland, Norway, and Sweden, its nearest 

 breeding-places. 



In my own notes I find that I received a specimen of this 

 Grebe, which had been shot on Warnham Millpond in 

 January 1849, in winter plumage. In November 1847, two 

 specimens were shot off Shoreham, and in the early part of 

 January 1850, a similar example was killed on Knepp Pond, 

 in the parish of Shipley, and is now in the possession of a 

 member of the Burrell family. Mr. JefiFery remarks (in 

 p. n.) that a female was obtained on December 20th, 1850, 

 in Chichester Harbour; a male near Selsey, November 1863, 

 containing nothing but feathers; a third in August 1870, a 

 female in full plumage, and with the ovary well developed, 

 shot at Bosham ; and a fourth, sex not noted, containing a 

 mass of feathers and half-digested shrimps, on January 1st, 

 1870. 



Mr. Dennis informs me that one of these Grebes was shot 

 at Newhaven in the winter of 1844-5, and another at Hope 

 Gap, Cuckmere, on January 27th, 1857. 



Yarrell (B. B. vol. iv. p. 126) says that the late 

 Mr. Dann, writing respecting the breeding of this species 

 on the Gulf of Bothnia, states that they are by no means 

 shy, and keep up a constant croaking, and that they do not 

 use their wings while under water. The nest is described 

 as placed among aquatic herbage and reeds, being built of 

 similar decayed material, and the call-note as a loud, 

 clear keck, keck. The birds feed on small fish, Crustacea, and 

 water-insects ; and in one, examined by Montagu, the 

 stomach was distended by its own feathers and small seeds. 

 In the 'Zoologist' for 1865, Mr. Jefl'ery records an example 

 shot inPagham Harbour, in February of that year (p. 9582). 



