PODICIPEDID^E PODICIPES 513 



a good deal discoloured by the peaty and dirty water in which they 

 often lie without apparently any damage accruing to them. 



811. Podicipes capensis. Cape Dabchick. 



Podiceps capensis, Licht, Nomencl. p. 104 (1854) [nom. nud] ; Salva- 



clori, Ann. Mm. Civ. Genou. (2) i, p. 252 (1884) ; Woodivard Bros., 



Natal B. p. 213 (1899). 

 Podiceps minor, (nee Grnel.} Gurney, Ibis, 1862 p. 153 [Natal] ; Ayres, 



Ibis, 1869, p. 303, 1880, p. 271, 1885, p. 351 ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 



374 (1867) ; Gurney, in Anderssoris B. framural. p. 347 (1872) ; 



Bar rait, Ibis, 1876, p. 214 ; Oates, Matabeleland, p. 328 (1881) ; 



Holub Pelzeln, Or;?-. Siid-Afr. p. 331 (1882) ; Butler, Feilden and 



Reid, Zool 1882, p. 426 ; Sharpe, ed. Layard' s B. S. Afr. p. 787 



(1884) ; Haagner, Ibis, 1902, pp. 575, 581. 



Colymbus fluviatalis (nee Tunst.} Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 379. 

 Tachybaptes capensis, Sharpe, Bull B. 0. C. iv, No. 20, p. iv (1894) ; 



id. Ibis, 1895, p. 139. 

 Podicipes capensis, Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 174 (1896) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 



1897, p. 517 [Zululand] , 1904, p. 8 [Deelfontein] ; Grant, Cat. B. M. 



xxvii, p. 513, pis. vii, viii (1898) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 269 ; 



Shortridge, Ibis, 1904, p. 207. 

 Colymbus capensis, Reichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 18 (1900). 



Description. Adult in breeding plumage. Crown, sides of the 

 face as far as the hinder edge of the eye, throat, nape, back of neck, 

 and back of wings, dark slaty-black; primaries ashy-brown, white 

 at their bases, secondaries white, with an ashy-brown band along 

 the outer edge of the outer web, some of the inner secondaries 

 quite white ; ear-coverts, sides and front of the neck rich chestnut ; 

 under parts white tinged with grey on the lower fore neck, sides, 

 flanks and abdomen. 



Iris brown ; bill black, paler at the tip, greenish at the gape ; 

 legs and feet black with greenish tinge at the tarsal joint. 



Length (in flesh) 10-5 ; wing 4-10 ; tail -75 ; culmen -75 ; tarsus 

 1-35. 



In non-breeding dress the upper parts from the crown to the 

 tail are ashy-black, slightly paler than in the breeding dress ; the 

 chestnut of the sides and front of the neck is replaced by very pale 

 tawny-brown, the chin is white and the under parts are dull white 

 slightly soiled with brown ; the flanks and abdomen are ashy. 

 Bill, upper mandible black, sides and lower mandible yellowish ; 

 legs greenish black. 



33 VOL. iv. 



