EARED GREBE LITTLE GREBE. 409 



THE EARED GREBE. 

 PODICEPS A URITUS. 



NOT of common occurrence in the western counties, where it is but 

 sparingly distributed. A very fine specimen in' full breeding 

 plumage, shot on Loch Sunart, and now in my own collection, was 

 sent in the flesh to Mr Bell, gunsmith, Glasgow, in the spring of 

 1866. It has likewise been found in the Outer Hebrides, a speci- 

 men having been sent to Mr Macgillivray from North Uist. 



I have known this bird as a visitant to the shores of East 

 Lothian since 1846. It is a species well known to the fishermen 

 and shore shooters by the form of its bill, and I have several times 

 obtained specimens by giving directions to the gunners of that 

 coast to bring them for the purpose of supplying a friend's cabinet. 

 In the winter of 1864 I examined five specimens obtained in this 

 way near Dunbar. 



The Eared Grebe has been shot on the Nith in Dumfriesshire; 

 it is also mentioned as a Mid-Lothian bird in the 'List of Animals,' 

 etc., given by the late Mr Patrick Neill in a life of Allan Ramsay, 

 with illustrations of scenery, etc., published in Edinburgh in 1808; 

 and in a manuscript note appended to Baikie and Heddle's work 

 by one of the authors, I find that a specimen was killed at Kirkwall 

 by Mr J. H. Baikie in October, 1852. 



THE LITTLE GREBE, OR DABCHICK. 



PODICEPS MINOR. 

 Spagaire tuinne. Goblachan uisge. 



THIS curious and unobtrusive bird is permanently resident, and 

 very generally distributed throughout Scotland, extending also 

 over the whole of the Long island or Outer Hebrides. Among the 

 inner group of islands it is well known in Skye, Rum, Mull, Islay, 

 and Jura, as well as those of minor extent, embracing the islands 

 of Gigha, Colonsay, Tyree, Coll, and lona, etc. It is frequently 

 found breeding at a great elevation on our western mountains. 

 Mr Sinclair procured a specimen in a little loch near the summit 

 of Ben Eadden, one of the hills of Morvern in Argyllshire, at an 

 elevation of perhaps 2000 feet; and I have been informed by Mr 



