PODICIPINJE. PODICEPS. 201 



oblong, olivaceous, and spotted. The young, covered with 

 down, immediately betake themselves to the water. Be- 

 sides fishes, these birds feed on reptiles, insects, mollus- 

 ca, and sometimes seeds. Adults frequently have the 

 head and neck ornamented with crests or ruffs, which are 

 produced in spring, and fall off in autumn. The pre- 

 vailing colours are dusky and silvery white. Seven spe- 

 cies occur in Britain. 



GENUS CXXXVIL PODICEPS. GREBE. 



The Grebes, properly so called, have the body elongated 

 and depressed ; the neck rather long and slender ; the head 

 of moderate size, or small, oblong, narrowed before. The 

 bill about the length of the head, or shorter, straight, rather 

 stout, much compressed, tapering, pointed ; the upper man- 

 dible mobile at the base, as if jointed, with the dorsal line 

 nearly straight, the nasal grooves narrow, and of consider- 

 able length, the edges very sharp and a little inclinate, the 

 tip direct, rather acute ; the lower mandible with the angle 

 very long and narrow, partly bare, the outline ascending and 

 nearly straight, the edges very sharp, the tip rather acute. 

 The mouth does not open so far back as the eyes, and is ra- 

 ther narrow, but dilatable ; the tongue long, slender, fleshy, 

 trigonal, tapering to a slit point ; oesophagus wide ; stomach 

 large, roundish, with the muscular coat rather thick, but not 

 divided into distinct muscles, the tendons roundish, the epi- 

 thelium longitudinally rugous ; the intestine long and rather 

 wide, with rather long and slender coeca, and a very large 

 globular cloaca. Nostrils basal, linear-oblong. Eyes ra- 

 ther small ; a bare space from the eye to the bill. Aperture 

 of ear extremely small. Legs placed at the posterior extre- 

 mity of the body ; tibia enveloped in the general integu- 

 ment, unless at the very end ; tarsus short, extremely com- 

 pressed, its narrow anterior ridge with small scutella, the 

 posterior with two series of small prominent scales, separat- 

 ed by a groove ; toes four ; the first very small, with two 

 lateral lobes ; anterior toes obliquely flattened, the outer 

 longest, all webbed at the base, and toward the end having 

 stiffish lateral expansions marked with oblique parallel lines ; 



