42S TEX YEARS IN SWEDEN. 



Fam. 4. PYGOPODES, 111. 



Back toe absent or free; beak not crenated; wings 

 short, small; tail short or none; front toes webbed or 

 fringed. 



GROUP 1. Feet with four toes. All breed in fresh water. 

 Gen. PodicepSj Lath. 



Beak long, conical, straight, compressed at the sides ; 

 nostrils basal near the top edge of the beak ; naked cere 

 from the eye to the beak ; legs large, set far back ; tarsi 

 flat ; front toes only webbed at their roots, but after that 

 fisso-palmated ; hind toe lobed ; no true tail ; wings small ; 

 the first and second feathers alike and longest. Sexes alike, 

 but there is a great difference between the summer and 

 winter plumage. All lay three to six eggs on a flat, gene- 

 rally floating nest, dirty white, oblong, pointed alike at each 

 end. 



286. PODICEPS CEISTATUS, Lath. Hvit Strupig Dopping. 



The Great Crested Grebe. D. F. 

 Beak from gape longer than head ; from the feathers 

 on the forehead 1 in. 6 1., reddish ; throat white at all 

 seasons; length 20 in. ; beak from gape 2^ in. ; tarsus 

 2f in. 



The twelve outer wing feathers brown, with white tips 

 to the five or six inner ones ; the next two are all white, 

 but with brown bands to the shafts ; the rest are all pure 

 white. 



Summer plumage : cheeks white ; crown of the head 

 occipital; crest, and a large ruff of feathers standing out 

 round the neck, glossy black ; on the sides of the head red- 

 dish yellow ; front of the neck and all the under parts silvery 

 white ; hinder neck and all the upper parts dusky brown, 

 save a white patch on the wing ; sides of the body with 

 a reddish tinge ; beak reddish brown ; eye red ; legs 

 dusky. 



In the autumn the whole upper parts become browner, 



