GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 455 



PODICEPS CRISTATUS. 



GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 



(PLATE 39.) 



Colymbus cristatus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 38 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 222 (1766) ; 



et auctorum plurimorum Temminck, (Naumanri), (Baird, Brewer, Sf Ridg- 



?'//), Sa tinders, &c. 



Colymbus cornutus, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 45 (1760). 

 Colymbus urinator, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 223 (1766). 

 Podiceps cristatus (Briss.}, Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. p. 780 (1790). 

 Colymbus longirostris, Bonn. Encycl. Mtth. i. p. 54 (1790). 

 Lophaithyia cristatus (Briss.), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 72 (1829). 

 Podiceps mitratus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 953 (1831). 

 Podiceps australis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, p. 135. 

 Podiceps hectori, Butter, Essay on New Zeal. Om. p. 19 (1865). 

 Podiceps widhalmi, Goebel, Journ. Orn. 1870, p. 312. 



The Great Crested Grebe is a somewhat local resident in the British 

 Islands, but it has not hitherto been known to breed in Scotland. It 

 breeds on the large lakes in Wales, and on suitable sheets of water in 

 England, especially in the low -lying eastern counties, and in Oxfordshire, 

 Warwickshire, Bucks, Notts, and Hertfordshire. North of Yorkshire it is 

 much rarer, and occurs almost exclusively as a winter visitor. Though 

 rare on the west coast of Scotland at that season, it has been known to 

 stray as far north as the Shetlands, and is more frequent on the east 

 coast. It breeds in Ireland on several of the large sheets of fresh water, 

 and is occasionally obtained in winter in various other parts of the 

 country. 



Few birds have such an extended breeding-range as the Great Crested 

 Grebe. It is not known with certainty to have occurred in the New 

 World; but in the Old World it is a resident in suitable localities 

 throughout the continent of Africa (though in the tropics it is probably 

 only found at a considerable elevation), and in Australia, Tasmania, and 

 New Zealand. It is found throughout Europe south of the Baltic ; but 

 north of the Mediterranean it is only a summer visitor, except in the 

 British Islands. It is not known to have occurred in Iceland or Green- 

 land, and has only once been recorded from the Faroes. It is a rare 

 straggler to Norway, but is a regular summer visitor to Central and 

 Southern Sweden and to South Finland. It is extremely abundant in 

 South-western Siberia, and breeds in East Turkestan, Mongolia, and the 

 valley of the Hoang-ho. It is a resident in the basin of the Caspian, and 



