BLACK-NECKED GREBE. 405 



PODICEPS NIGRICOLLIS. 

 BLACK-NECKED GREBE. 



(PLATE 39.) 



Colymbus auritus, firiss. Orn. vi. p. 54 (1760). 



Colymbus auritus, /3, Linn. Sysf. Nat. i. p. 223 (1706). 



Podiceps nigricollis, Brehm, V'6g. Deutschl. p. 963 (1831) ; et auctorum pluri- 



morum Deffkmd $ Gerbe, Dresser, Saunders, &c. 

 Dytes nigricollis (Brehm}, Itidyway, Nom. N.-Amer. B. no. 733 (J881). 

 Podiceps auritus (Gmeliti), Latham, Forster, Leach, Temminck, (Naumanti), nee 



Linnccus. 



The British Islands may be regarded as lying beyond the confines of the 

 breeding-range of the Black-necked or Eared Grebe. There is no authentic 

 instance of its nest ever having been found in this country, although this 

 Grebe breeds quite as far north in Siberia. It may possibly object, like the 

 Great Sedge- Warbler and some other birds, to cross the English Channel 

 or the Baltic Sea ; but more probably our cold summers are the cause of 

 its rarity, as it is almost as accidental a visitor to Pomerania. It is 

 chiefly known in our islands as a rare visitor on spring and autumn migra- 

 tion, though a few have been obtained during winter. The fact that 

 British examples have most frequently occurred on the east and south 

 coasts of England seems to imply that they have formed part of the great 

 stream of migration which reaches us via Heligoland. It has once been 

 obtained on the Orkneys, once on the Outer Hebrides, and is a rare 

 accidental visitor to the mainland of Scotland, Ireland, and the west of 

 England. 



The Black-necked Grebe has a somewhat similar range to that of the 

 Little Grebe. It is a resident in the basin of the Mediterranean, but is a 

 summer visitor to Central Europe and Southern Russia as far north as the 

 Baltic and Moscow. To Norway, Sweden, and Finland it is only an 

 accidental visitor. It appears to be a resident in South Africa, breeding 

 in Damara Land, the Cape Colony, and the Transvaal. It has also 

 occurred in Abyssinia. Finsch found it extremely common in South-west 

 Siberia ; Dybowsky met with it in Dauria ; it passes through Turkestan 

 on migration (where, according to Severtzow, a few are said to remain to 

 breed) *, and winters on the Mekran coast and in Scinde. It has not been 

 recorded from India or Burma, but it winters in China and Japan. 



* Both the Sclavonian and the Black-necked Grebes are recorded by Severtzow as 

 passing through Turkestan on migration. Severtzow calls them Podiceps cornutm and 



