GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 403 



plumage, and sometimes sleeps in mid-day, the head 

 turned half round with the beak inserted and hid among 

 the feathers on the back. 



Of several examples of the Great-crested Grebe which I 

 have examined internally, I never remember to have 

 opened one, the stomach of which did not contain a portion 

 of feathers which appeared to have been taken from the 

 white under surface of their own bodies. The same thing 

 has been noticed and recorded by others in the Magazine 

 of Natural History.* This habit of swallowing feathers 

 alone appears to be peculiar to the Grebes only, but from 

 fish bones being occasionally found mixed up with the 

 feathers, there is cause to suspect these birds bring up at 

 will, from the stomach, the more indigestible parts of their 

 last meal as hawks, owls, shrikes and some other birds 

 are known to do. 



The Great-crested Grebe is rather rare in some parts of 

 the south of England, but has been seen occasionally in 

 Devon and Cornwall ; Mr. Dillwyn has noticed it in Glamor- 

 ganshire ; and Mr. Eyton in Shropshire and North Wales. 

 A young bird in its first winter was shot on the Thames 

 at Penton-hook near Laleham, Middlesex, in February 

 1844. Mr. Thompson says it is resident in Ireland on the 

 larger lakes ; Mr. Heysham has recorded the capture of 

 both old and young in Cumberland; and Mr. Macgillivray, 

 now of Aberdeen, in his recently published Manual of the 

 Water-birds of Great Britain and Ireland, says it is more 

 numerous in Scotland during winter than summer. 



Of the Grebes in Scandinavia, Mr. Dann sends me 

 word, that, with the exception of the Red-necked species, 

 next to be described, they are confined to the south of 

 Sweden. In Norway they only appear as stragglers, and 



* Volume vi. page 519, and vol. ix. pp. 202 and 326. 



