474 PODICIPEDID^E. 



Bill blackish brown, yellowish at the base and beneath ; a bare 

 space from the eye to the mouth dusky green ; irides carmine-red ; 

 legs dusky green externally, greenish yellow internally ; toes 

 greenish yellow above, dusky below (Dresser). 



Length 22 ; wing 7'5 ; tarsus 2'4 ; bill from gape 2*6. 



Distribution. This Grebe is found in the temperate parts of 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. It is not rare during the 

 cold season in parts of Northern India, it is common on many 

 of the larger jheels and also on the sea along the Mekran coast 

 and about Karachi, it is not unfreqiaently brought to the Calcutta 

 bazaar, a few individuals were observed by Hume in Manipur,. 

 and Gates has obtained a specimen from Mvitkyina in Northern 

 Burma. I can find no record of this bird's occurrence in the 

 Peninsula of India, or in Ceylon, or in Burma except in the case 

 mentioned. 



Habits, <$fc. Although this Grebe is chiefly a winter visitor in 

 India, it was found breeding in August by Mr. A. Anderson 

 in Oudh and the Doab, by Mr. Bulkley in the same month 

 near Kharaghora in Guzerat, and by Mr. Theobald on May 2nd in 

 Kashmir. 



1616. Podicipes nigricollis. The Eared Grebe. 



Podiceps nigricollis, C. L. Brehm, Voy. Deutschl. p. 963 (1831) ;. 

 Hume, S. F. i, p. 266 ; id. Cat. no. 974 bis ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 

 p. 419. 



Coloration. In the summer the head and neck are black ; a 

 stripe of elongate silky orange-brown feathers, whitish above, runs 

 from behind the eye to the side of the neck ; upper back brownish 

 black ; outer primaries and all tertiaries brown, inner primaries 

 and secondaries white ; breast and abdomen silky white ; sides of 

 breast and flanks rufous. 



In winter the upper parts are dark brown, there is no orange 

 brown stripe from the eye, chin and throat mixed white and 

 black, fore neck dark brown, breast and abdomen white, no rufous- 

 on flanks. 



Young birds have the chin and throat white and the fore neck 

 greyish brown ; otherwise they resemble birds in winter plumage. 



Bill black ; irides vermilion ; legs and feet blackish outside, 

 greenish plumbeous inside (Hume). 



Length 13; wing 5'3; tarsus 1/6; bill from gape 1'2. 



Distribution. Temperate regions of Europe and Asia, and both 

 North and South Africa. . This Grebe had been met with in India 

 until lately only at Karachi and thence westward along the 

 Mekran coast, where Hume found it common ; but I have just 

 heard from Mr. P. Finn that he has obtained a specimen alive 

 in the Calcutta bazaar, so P. nigricollis may occur in winter 

 throughout Northern India. 



Habits, fyc. Very similar to other Grebes. On the Sind coast 

 this bird has only been found on salt water. It is not known tc* 

 breed in India. 



