Pygopodes 



247 



from the Baltic to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, 

 India, and north Africa. The flight is fairly strong, 

 but usually not long sustained ; the food is of fishes, 

 crustaceans, frogs, and so forth, with a little vegetable 

 matter ; the cry is croaking, with a short double alarm- 

 note. The nest is a mass of aquatic plants placed in 

 rather deep water or even floating ; the four to six eggs 

 are bluish white with a chalky crust and are covered with 



Great Crested Grebe 



water- weeds by the female on leaving them, if she is not 

 too suddenly disturbed. Grebes often carry their downy 

 young on their backs, or dive with them in that position. 

 The Red-necked Grebe (P. griseigena) is not uncom- 

 mon on our shores from autumn to spring, though its 

 numbers differ from year to year. It does not, how- 

 ever, breed with us, but in Scandinavia, Holland, the 

 whole Baltic region, and across Russia to the Caspian 

 Sea, as well as more rarely in other parts of Europe. 



