PODICIPES AURITUS. ADT 
journal of 18 June, 1856, renders the history of these specimens more 
complete :— 
“‘ My boys having found a Sclavonian Grebe with six eggs yesterday, and 
also another nest close by containing two eggs, which they left, we started for 
the place this morning. It proved to be a pool of water lying in a depression 
in the large common which extends from the back of the Merlin wood ' to the 
west coast, No aquatic vegetation covers this pool except a thin fringe of bog- 
bean on one side. In a little bay, where this fringe was thickest, were the 
two nests, one of which now contained three eggs, the one laid this morning 
being fresh and of a curious round shape. There were three pairs of the birds 
floating on the pool, and we lay down to watch them for some time—an 
interesting sight. They were not very shy, and appeared quite unconcerned, 
floating smoothly along, and sometimes taking a short flight.” } 
[§ 5069. 7hree—Flankastadr, South-western Iceland, 7 June, 
1858. 2° Aa Ne 
From a nest built on a floating bog-bean off a little islet in a small pond 
close to the house at Flankastadr. The day we came here first (21 May) we 
saw some Grebes on this and the adjacent pond at Sandgerdi; and passing it 
again on returning from our visit to Pastor Sivertsen at Utskala, we thought 
it best to enquire of the inhabitants respecting this and other kinds of birds. 
While Mr. Wolley was talking to the man through Geir Zoega, and trying to 
make him understand what we meant by our enquiries, I saw a Grebe quietly 
sitting on its nest, as above described, not forty yards from us. The man 
brought a plank, and we got on to tlie islet, the bird leaving its nest as we 
approached, and Mr. Wolley holding me by one hand I reached out and took 
these eggs out of the nest. The bird continued in the pond for some time, and 
several times rose to the surface. It appeared to me to have a full amount of 
feathering round the head, and therefore not to be the supposed P. arcticus. 
The native called it Fléaskitr. The nest was truly a floating one, and 
composed of plants newly gathered, as seen from their freshness. There were 
several pairs of Red-necked Phalarope about; but they did not seem as yet to 
have got nests, also on the adjacent bigger pond of Sandgerdi there were three 
more pairs of Grebes and the beginning of a nest. | 
[§ 5070. Zhree.—Flankastadr, 18 June, 1858. “A. N.” 
Out of four from the same nest as before (§ 5069). I had a still better view 
of the bird than I had the last time, as I was within five yards of her when she 
left the nest, and I could plainly see her crimson eye. I have no doubt she 
was positively the Horned Grebe. I got out to the nest as before, and took the 
eges myself. The little islet close to which the nest was built was now much 
grown up with grass, among which were some six or eight nests of Arctic 
Tern. Four of them contained two eggs each and these I took (§§ 4478-4481). 
The fourth Grebe’s egg I gave to Mr. Salvin. ] 
‘ {A wood in which Mr, Hudleston had taken a Merlin’s nest.—Ep. | 
