Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 329 



birds quitted the lake until after they had assumed the full 

 breeding-plumage. In the month of March its placid surface 

 was dotted all over by Grebes, dispersed in every direction, with 

 here and there a White-headed Duck {Erismatura mersa), quietly 

 dipping and diving as we approached the shore or as our boats 

 glided near them. 



The only three species of Grebe were Podiceps cristatus, P. 

 nigricollis, and P. mino7\ Perhaps the second was the most 

 numerous, though all were in amazing numbers. Some had 

 assumed the breeding-plumage at the beginning of March ; in- 

 deed I got a Great Crested Grebe, with the finest tippet I 

 ever saw, on the 29th of February. The Eared Grebes are 

 large, a trifle larger than Algerian specimens, and very much 

 larger than South- African*. These two quietly move up the 

 Jordan to the marshes of Merom to breed, while the Little Grebe 

 is dispersed more generally in all the nooks and corners of 

 the country ; I have found its eggs in a piece of water no 

 bigger than a horsepond. 



The inhabitants of Tiberias have a curious version of the old 

 Bernacle story adapted to the Grebes. There is a fine Unio, 

 very solid and oblong, U. terminalis, found in the lake. Know- 

 ing we were looking for eggs, the fishermen brought us one 

 morning a great basket of these mussels, assuring us they were 

 Grebes' eggs ! They gravely maintained their assertion, which 

 we found was the common belief, on the ground that no one 

 ever found any other Gi-ebes' eggs, that the Grebes were con- 

 stantly diving down in the part where these shells were, and for 

 what else could they dive but to lay these eggs ? and, finally, if 

 they were not Grebes' eggs, and being sat upon by the Grebes 

 under water, what had become of the Grebes ? for no one ever 

 saw them from the beginning of breeding-time till the summer, 

 when they reappeared from the bottom with their young 

 families ! This was surely conclusive ! 



In winter we found all these species of Grebe also on the 

 Dead Sea, especially near the mouth of the Jordan, where they 

 feed on the fry that are carried down, and which soon become 

 " red herring alive " in the briny solution of the lake. 

 • [ Vide antea, p. 263.— Ed.] 



