430 THE GREBES 



presents a series of startling contrasts. The great-crested, the red- 

 necked, and the Slavonian-grebes all display " ruffs " and " ears," but 

 these ornaments attain their greatest development in the first-named 

 species. The fact that in their coloration these ornaments are so 

 strikingly different is curious, having regard to the similarity these 

 birds exhibit when their ornaments are shed at the autumn moult. It 

 is also curious that the white breast, with its satin sheen, should be 

 masked by a dull slate-coloured hue in the nuptial dress of the dab- 

 chick, though the rednecked-grebe shows a tendency to develop the 

 same peculiarity. Of the more ornate types it would be hard to say 

 which is the most beautiful, but perhaps the palm must be given to 

 the Slavonian-grebe, P. auritus, which when in full nuptial dress, 

 Professor Newton remarks, "presents an extraordinary aspect, the 

 head being surrounded as it were by a nimbus or aureole, such as that 

 with which painters adorn saintly characters, reflecting the rays of 

 light, and glittering with a glory that passes description." But while 

 a more or less gaily coloured nuptial dress is characteristic of the 

 grebes, it is by no means universal, for there are two species the 

 western grebe, and Clarke's grebe of Western N. America which the 

 year round are clad in sober grey and white, without ornament of any 

 kind. There can surely be nothing in the environment controlling 

 this absence of colour, for a subspecies of the British eared-grebe is 

 also found there, and this of course has a conspicuous nuptial dress. 



Of their habits and behaviour during the period of " courtship " 

 there seem to be no records, but it seems clear that, as with the great 

 crested-grebe, and the dabchick to be presently described, both sexes 

 share in the work of building the nest and in the task of incubation, 

 and we may assume therefore of feeding the young. 



As with the dabchick so with the Slavonian-grebe, if danger 

 threatens the young they are borne off into safety under water, the 

 parent clasping its offspring to its body by the pressure of the wings. 



The nest appears, in each of the species now under considera- 

 tion, to be a floating structure ; but the Slavonian-grebe, according to 



