418 COLYMBID.E. 



the opportunity of examining a recently-killed bird is quite 

 accidental. This species is distinguished from the Grebe 

 last described by being a little smaller in size ; in having 

 the bill bent slightly upwards, the curve being most con- 

 spicuous in the lower mandible ; and in the lore, or part 

 between the base of the bill and the eye, never carrying 

 any ferruginous feathers at any age or season. The 

 reddish, or golden-yellow feathers, when present, arise 

 behind the eye, covering the orifice of the ears. In its 

 habits it appears to resemble the Sclavonian Grebe ; it 

 feeds on small fishes, aquatic insects, and some fresh-water 

 plants; hiding itself and making its nest among thick 

 herbage. The eggs are mostly three or four in number, of 

 a dull yellowish-white, one inch nine lines in length, by 

 one inch and three lines in breadth. 



Mr. Thompson says this species occurs, though but 

 rarely, in Ireland. Colonel Montagu obtained one in 

 Cornwall ; and it has been killed in Dorsetshire, and in 

 Sussex. The bird figured by Edwards in his Gleanings, 

 plate 96, figure 2, was taken in a pond at Hampstead, 

 near London ; and Mr. Bond gave me notice of two that 

 were killed in 1841, on the Kingsbury reservoir. Mr. 

 Joseph Clarke sent me an account of one that was taken 

 alive on Duxford common field, and it is included in the 

 catalogues of the Birds of Norfolk and Suffolk. Pennant 

 states that in his time it inhabited the fens near Spald- 

 ing, in Lincolnshire. Mr. Selby obtains it occasionally in 

 winter on the coast of Northumberland ; it is found also 

 occasionally in the lake counties on the western side of 

 England. Mr. Macgillivray says he has rarely met with 

 it in Scotland, and it is not included among the birds 

 found in Orkney or in Shetland. 



Faber describes it in his account of the Birds of Iceland ; 



