462 BRITISH BIRDS. 



PODICEPS CORNUTUS. 

 SCLAVONIAN GREBE. 



(PLATE 39.) 



Colymbus cristatus minor. \ T> ^ *^ en /-im->n, 

 ., / , ' } -Brzss. Orn. vi. pp. 42, 50 (1760). 



Colymbus cornutus minor, I 



Colymbus auritus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 222 (1766) *. 



Colymbus nigricans, Scop. Ann. I. Hist. Nat. p. 77 (1769). 



Colymbus caspicus, S. G. Omel. Reise Russl. iv. p. 137 (1784). 



Podiceps nigrieans (Scop.}, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 294 (1787). 



Colymbus cornutus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 591 (1788) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



(Temminck), Naumann, (Latham}, (Reinhardt), (Blakiston), (Sclater), (Severt- 



zow), &c. 



Colymbus obscurus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 592 (1788). 

 Podiceps obscurus (Gmel.), \ 



Podiceps cornutus (Gmel.), > Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii. pp. 782, 784 (1790). 



Podiceps caspicus (S. G. Gmel.), ) 



Podiceps arcticus, Boie, Reise durch Nono. p. 808 (1822). 

 Dytes cornutus (Gmel), Kaup, Natilrl. Syst. p. 41 (1829). 

 Podiceps ambiguus, Less. Traite dOrn. p. 595 (1831). 

 Podiceps bicornis (Linn.), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 960 (1831). 

 Podiceps sclavus, Sonap. Cat. Parzud. p. 13 (1856). 

 Dytes auritus (Linn.), Ridgway, Norn. N.-Amcr. S. no. 732 (1881). 



The Sclavonian Grebe is a semi-arctic species, and is only a winter 

 visitor to the British Islands, most abundant on the coasts of Scotland, 

 but less so on the east coast of England. It is the commonest of the 

 Grebes which visit the Shetlands, and is tolerably frequent in the Orkneys 

 and the Western Islands of Scotland. It is an occasional straggler to the 

 south coast of England and to Ireland, but is almost unknown on the 

 west coasts of England. 



The Sclavonian Grebe is a circumpolar bird, but does not breed north 

 of the Arctic circle except in Norway. In Europe it is only found on 



* The Grebes have been most unfortunate in their nomenclature. Linnseus knew very 

 little about them ; he appears only to have been acquainted with two of the European 

 species the Great Crested Grebe and the Sclavonian Grebe. His diagnosis of the latter 

 was vague enough to include the Black-necked Grebe, and consequently has been some- 

 times ascribed to one and sometimes to the other, until the name of Podiceps auritus has 

 ceased to have a scientific meaning. Modern ornithologists, bent upon making confusion 

 worse confounded, have raked up two unknown names for the Little Grebe and the Red- 

 necked Grebe, so that one is obliged to fall back upon the English names in order to be 

 understood. 



