528 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



a proportion of those about the South Devon coast 

 in the winter should be in this plumage. Younger 

 birds in their first winter have little or no ear-tufts 

 or frill. The chicks after they are first hatched 

 " have their bills mottled black and white ; the head 

 and neck ornamented with long dark stripes on a 

 ground colour of dull greyish white ; the upper sur- 

 face of the body is dark brown, with longitudinal 

 stripes of light brown ; the whole of the under sur- 

 face is white." * 



According to Meyer's coloured plate, the egg is of 

 a very pale greenish white. 



SCLAVONIAN GREBE, Podiceps cornutus. There 

 are but few instances, I believe, of this bird having 

 occurred in this county. There is one stuffed speci- 

 men in the late Mr. Esdaile's small collection, which 

 that gentleman told me he had shot in his pond 

 at Cotheleston some years ago during some hard 

 weather in the winter. I also saw one in the 

 Museum at Taunton, in the flesh, which had been 

 placed in Mr. Bidgood's hands for preservation : it 

 had been killed in the marsh in the middle of 

 February, 1865. These are the only two specimens 

 of which I have a personal knowledge : they were 

 both in winter plumage the "Dusky Grebe" of 

 Bewick. 



This bird frequents both the sea and inland 



* Yarrell, vol. iii., p. 409. 



