118 DTTSTCY GTTEBE. 



These birds feed on shell-fish, Crustacea, insects, and parts 

 of plants, procured by diving. They also appear to swallow 

 some of their own feathers at times. 



The nest of this species is large a mass of reeds, sedge, 

 and other water-plants, placed by the edge of the liquid 

 element, or floated on the surface among the rushes or other 

 such vegetation that there has its natural growth. 



The eggs appear to be from two to four or five in number. 

 They are of a white colour, with a faint tinge of blue. 



Male; length, one foot one inch and a half; the base of 

 the under mandible is pale yellowish pink, the tip, greyish, 

 the remainder black; the space between the bill and the 

 eye is rich yellowish chesnut red, or orange buff-colour, and 

 this bar goes behind the eye, growing gradually broader; 

 iris, yellow in the centre, surrounded with bright crimson 

 red, the pupil bordered with white; the eyelids and the 

 feathers round the eye and those that compose the double- 

 horned tuft on the back of the head are of a bright orange 

 buff-colour; the tufts are somewhat erectible, and stand out 

 like two ears. The forehead, dull ferruginous; the crown, 

 the ruff that surrounds the head, its sides, and the upper 

 part of the neck, are dusky black, with a reflection of purple 

 or green; in winter dark brown; neck in front and on the 

 sides, bright ferruginous orange chesnut; on the back part 

 and the nape, dusky, or blackish grey dashed with ferru- 

 ginous, the feathers having paler margins. Chin and throat, 

 dusky black, with purple and green reflections, and a little 

 mottled with white, in winter white; breast on the upper 

 part, bright ferruginous orange chesnut, darker on the lower 

 part; below silky white, the sides intermixed with dusky 

 and orange ferruginous; in winter the breast on the upper 

 part is greyish white. Back, blackish grey, the edges of 

 the feathers being paler than the remainder; in winter it is 

 dark greyish brown. 



The wings extend to the width of one foot ten inches; 

 greater and lesser wing coverts, dark brown; the primaries 

 are dark brown; the secondaries are tipped with white, forming 

 a conspicuous bar across the wing when opened; the tertiaries 

 are in winter greyish brown. Under tail coverts, white. Legs 

 and toes, blackish grey on the outer part, and pale yellowish 

 or greyish brown tinged with pale yellowish grey on the inner. 



In the autumn, from the base of the bill a stripe of chesnut- 

 tipped feathers goes over the eyes to the back of the headj 



