188 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



belly white, tinged with brown on the back of the neck and marked on the head 

 and neck with blackish-brown. On the crown a patch of flesh-coloured pink bare 

 skin, surrounded by a triangular blackish-brown mark. Back, sides of the body 

 and wings pale brown marked with stripes of blackish-brown ; edge of the wing 

 light. These stripes become less distinct as the bird increases in size. 



Family PODICIPEDIDAL. 



RED-NECKED GREBE. 



Podicipes griseigena, (BoDD.) 



THE Red-necked Grebe visits our eastern coasts not uncommonly from 

 autumn to spring, but it is much less frequent in the west ; it is, while 

 with us, more marine in its habits than the other species of Grebe, and occurs 

 much less frequently on inland waters. It visits the Shetlands occasionally in 

 autumn and spring, and is said to be not uncommon in the Orkneys, though 

 Dunn does not mention meeting with it. It has occurred in Skye, but not in 

 the Outer Hebrides, and it is rare on the west side of Scotland ; but on the east 

 it is not uncommon, and the same may be said of Northumberland and Durham 

 where it generally appears in severe weather, but has also occurred in summer 

 plumage. It visits the coasts of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, sometimes in some 

 numbers, and to Norfolk it is a not very numerous visitor, usually to the coast, 

 in late autumn and early spring. In Essex it is somewhat rare. In the Channel 

 it is uncommon, but in Dorset it occurs not very infrequently on the coast in winter, 

 and has once appeared as early as August. To the bays and estuaries of Devon 

 it is a casual visitor of occasional occurrence, but in Cornwall it is said to be 

 almost as common as the Crested Grebe (which is not very uncommon in winter) 

 in winter, and to occur occasionally in spring with some of the red feathers of 

 the neck appearing. Elsewhere on the coast of the west of England and of Wales 



