LITTLE GREBE. 207 



nest as an unsightly heap of rotten wood. The eggs are often 

 much discoloured from being immersed in water; but this 

 does not appear in any way to injure them, or to prevent them 

 from hatching in the usual way." 



Eggs. Three to five in number. Greenish- white in colour, 

 with more or less of a chalky covering. Axis, i '65-1 -95 inches ; 

 diam., 1-15-1*3. 



THE LITTLE GREBES. GENUS PODICIPES. 



Podiceps, Kaup, Nattirl. Syst. p. 49 (1829); ex Lath. Ind. Orn. 

 ii. p. 780 (1790). 



Type, P.fluviatilis (Tunst.). 



In this genus the tarsus is shorter than the middle toe and 

 claw. All the species are of small size, and the distribution of 

 this genus is all but cosmopolitan. 



I. THE LITTLE GREBE. PODICIPES FLUVIATILIS. 



Colymbus fluviatilis, Tunstall, Orn. Brit. p. 3 (1771). 

 Sylbeocyclus europceus, Macgill. Brit. B. v. p. 276 (1852). 

 Podiceps fluviatilis, Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 659, pi. 633 (1880); 



Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iv. p. 137 (1884). 

 Tachybaptes fluviatilis, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 204 (1883). 

 Podiceps minor, Briss. ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 468 



(1885); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xx. (1891). 

 Podiapes fluviatilis, Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 709 (1889). 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. General colour above sooty 

 black, with a slight greenish gloss. The lower back and rump 

 somewhat browner ; wing-coverts and quills sooty brown ; the 

 secondaries with a good deal of white on them, sometimes 

 confined to the base or to the inner web, but sometimes also 

 occupying the whole of the latter, and even extending over the 

 greater part of the outer web as well ; tail rudimentary, con- 

 sisting of a tuft of soft black feathers ; crown of head and hind 

 neck sooty-black like the back, but more distinctly washed 

 with green ; lores, region of the eye, and sides of face sooty- 

 black, including the fore-part of the ear-coverts and cheeks ; the 



