BLACK-THROATED GREBE. 439 



who kindly favoured me with a preserved speci- 

 men, and with some of his own notes. It is fre- 

 quently shot in the Rio Cobre. One which Mr. 

 Hill had alive was put into a barrel half filled 

 with straw, on which was laid a large pan of water ; 

 the brevity of its wings precluding the possibility 

 of its getting out. It was reconciled immediately ; 

 and fed heartily on raw fish chopped up. It lived 

 in apparent health three weeks, and died at length 

 without manifest illness, or any perceptible cause ; 

 though want of exercise or alteration of diet may 

 have contributed to it. 



A few further particulars of the habits of this 

 same individual are contained in a recent letter from 

 my friend. " The several specimens of the Black- 

 gorget Grebe that I have had, were brought to me 

 from the sedgy grounds of the River Cobre. Usu- 

 ally the banks of the river are deep ; but there are 

 places in which the course of the stream has been 

 changed, leaving, between one channel and the other, 

 open meadows and banks fringed with a bristling 

 growth of cyperaceous and other border herbage. 

 It will be readily perceived, that these stretches of 

 blended sward and sedge are the only parts of the 

 river fitted for a bird with fin-toed feet and short 

 wings, to quit the water and seek the shore. It is 

 only there they can rise out of the stream upon 

 the green turf ; and there they indulge in slumbers 



Under parts light grey, with transverse pencillings of black : vent dusky. 

 Female: Beak, head, neck, and breast dull yellowish-grey, the markings 

 rather less conspicuous ; under parts minutely mottled with black and yel- 

 lowish-grey. Weight lOf oz. 



