206 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



summer, being of rare occurrence in autumn and winter. It 

 is, therefore, more frequently met with on the south coast of 

 England, and on the east, while it is believed to have bred in 

 Norfolk, as the late E. T. Booth had an adult bird and two 

 nestlings brought to him by a marshman some years ago. On 

 the west coast of England, as well as in Scotland and Ireland, 

 the records of the capture of the species are less numerous. 



Range outside the British Islands. This species is an inhabitant 

 of Central and Southern Europe, nesting abundantly in most 

 of the countries of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and 

 being found in great numbers in Northern Africa. It appears 

 to nest in Abyssinia, and again in Southern Africa, both in 

 the Cape Colony and the Transvaal. It has been said to 

 breed in Denmark, and to have wandered as far north as 

 Iceland. In Asia it is met with over the temperate regions to 

 Korea and Japan, and in winter it is found in China, and has 

 also been procured by Mr. A. O. Hume on the Mekran coast 

 in February. 



Habits. The Black-necked Grebe is usually considered to 

 be a much shyer bird than the Slavonian Grebe, and seeks 

 safety in diving rather than by flight. Naumann describes its 

 note as a high soft, but far-sounding, beeb, which, in the pairing 

 season, is rapidly repeated, and becomes a trill bidder^ vidder, 

 vidder, vidder. The food and habits of this Grebe otherwise 

 resemble those of the other members of the family. 



Nest. Made of reeds and rotten water-plants ; but, according 

 to Canon Tristram, they are in Algeria sometimes raised on 

 artificial islets, frequently almost touching each other, and 

 sometimes piled on stout foundations rising from more than a 

 yard under water. In Denmark, Mr. Benzon says that the 

 nests were made chiefly of moss, with which the female covers 

 up her eggs on leaving them. Mr. Thomas Ayres, who has 

 found this Grebe breeding in the Transvaal in December, says 

 that " the nest is found in shallow lagoons, in two or three feet 

 of water, among the rushes. The nests, which float on the 

 water, are formed of a mass of rushes about a foot in diameter, 

 and two or three inches out of the water. On leaving the 

 nest, the old bird always carefully covers the eggs with rushes, 

 and any person unacquainted with this habit would pass the 



