THE GEEAT CEESTED GEEBE. 



PODICEPS CRISTATUS. 



Bill longer than the head, reddish, the tip white ; distance from the nostrils 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 Grest 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 

 Brown, under the name of Loon : " A handsome and 

 specious fowl, cristated, 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." Thirty years 

 ago the Loon continued to be so common on the Broads of 

 Norfolk that eighteen or twenty might be counted together. 

 So high a value has, however, of late been set on their 

 skins as an article of dress, that the sight of a pair or, at 

 the most, two pair is become a rare occurrence. 



M M 



