THE RED-NECKED GREBE. l8 9 



it is a rare bird. Inland it is recorded from several counties, but some of the 

 records must be received with caution, as the Little Grebe, in summer dress, has 

 sometimes been referred to as the " Red-necked Grebe." In Ireland, only some 

 five or six examples have been obtained. 



Considerable visitations of this species to parts of the eastern coasts occasionally 

 take place, usually during severe weather, when the birds have perhaps been frozen 

 out of their haunts on the other side of the North Sea. Stevenson recorded in 

 the "Zoologist" for 1865, that great numbers visited Norfolk in February and 

 March, 1865. He himself examined, or heard of on reliable authority, at least 

 five and thirty examples brought into Norwich alone, a large proportion of them 

 between the i8th and 28th of February. They were simultaneously met with in 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, while others were to be seen in the markets of 

 Cambridge and London at the same time. Large numbers visited the coast of 

 Yorkshire during the severe weather in January, 1891, as recorded by Mr. T. H. 

 Nelson, who saw many off Redcar, and reported that there must have been some 

 hundreds between the Tees and Huntclifife, the fishermen reporting most surprising 

 numbers of Grebes at sea. Unusual numbers were also reported from Scarborough 

 and Flamborough at the same time (" Zoologist," 1891). Mr. W. J. Clarke 

 recorded the occurrence of no less than twenty-eight at Scarborough during the 

 month of January ; also that he had seen seven which were shot at Filey, where, 

 he was informed, a large number of others were obtained ( "Zoologist," 1891, p. 



193)- 



The Red-necked Grebe, if we consider the larger form inhabiting Eastern 



Asia and North America as specifically identical with our form, is a " circumpolar 

 species breeding in the sub-arctic and temperate parts of Europe, Asia, and North 

 America" (Seebohm, "Geographical Distribution of British Birds"). It wanders 

 southwards in winter. 



The Red-necked Grebe does not breed in Iceland, where, however, it has 

 occurred, or the Faeroes, but is found in Southern Scandinavia (although it is 

 said to be only an uncertain breeder in Norway), Denmark, and Northern Germany, 

 where it is abundant. "It is also plentiful throughout the Baltic, and as far 

 north as the reedy lakes at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia ; while in Russia it 

 is found nesting from Archangel to the Black and Caspian Seas " (H. Saunders). 

 Seebohm says it does not appear to breed south of the valley of the Danube, nor 

 west of the valley of the Rhine, but it does so in South-west Siberia and Turkestan. 

 The birds inhabiting East Asia and the northern parts of America, including 

 Alaska and Greenland, have been separated tinder the name of P. holboelli, and 

 are larger than our bird. The latter is not common in the Mediterranean. 



