THE TIPPET GREBE. 219 



the vicinity of close, impervious reed-beds, and other luxurious 

 aquatic herbage. The nest is composed of decayed plants, 

 reeds, and grasses. Exceedingly large and bulky in structure, 

 it is sometimes destroyed by the sudden overflowing of the 

 lake or river in the vicinity. The eggs are very much elon- 

 gated, and average from two to four in number, in colour 

 greenish-white, but more usually dark brown, caused by the 

 colouring properties of the decaying herbage. The inside of 

 the eggs, when their contents are emptied, exhibit a rich and 

 beautiful green. 



A habit of this bird, and of the water hen, consists in co- 

 vering the eggs with flags and reeds when the female leaves 

 the nest to obtain food, from which cause the old writers on 

 natural history believed that the eggs were hatched by that 

 means, the fermentation of the herbage causing such an in- 

 crease of temperature as to hatch them. 



On the approach of the breeding season we observe a con- 

 siderable increase of those nuptial plumes about the neck for 

 which the entire family of grebes are remarkable, and from 

 which ornament no less than three species derive their name 

 the crested, horned, and eared grebes. 



To this beautiful bird the fair sex are indebted for a pe- 

 culiar and elegant resemblance of fur, for which reason it is 

 well known to furriers as the u tippet grebe," the silvery and 

 glossy skin of the breast alone being used for that purpose. 

 Ireland, however, furnishes but a small number, the majority 

 being procured from the northern parts of Europe and Ame- 

 rica. Commonly exposed for sale by the furriers of the city, 

 they are said to have been obtained from Switzerland, on the 

 lakes of which country they occur in considerable abundance, 

 and are much sought for, as we are informed by Degland, a 

 bird sells at Geneva for six or eight francs.* 



Although from their general appearance the grebes could 

 not be expected to possess any great means of flight, yet they 

 fly with great rapidity, using quick, short flaps of the wings ; 

 and by Audubon, in America, they have been observed pro- 

 ceeding through the air in flocks of from five to fifty. 



The food of this species consists of small fishes and frogs, 

 with a large proportion of coleopterous insects and small 

 river shell -fish, all of which are found in the stomach, inter- 

 mingled with the feathers of the bird. 



Indigenous. 



* Ornithologie Europeerme. 



