500 Colymbidce. 



205. GREAT CRESTED GREBE (Podiceps cristatus). 



This fine species well deserves to take rank at the head of the 

 family, and an adult bird furnished with its ruff or fringe round 

 the neck, and long occipital tufts or horns, presents a dignified 

 appearance. It spends a part of its life amidst inland lakes and 

 part in the shallow waters of the coast, whence it procures its 

 food. So rapidly does it dive, and such progress can it make by 

 exerting wings and feet beneath the surface, that it requires a 

 well-manned boat and sturdy rowers to keep pace with it. The 

 generic name, podiceps, from poditis + pes, signifying ' with feet 

 at the stern/ calls attention to one of the most marked features 

 which the whole genus shares. It was known in old time in 

 Lincolnshire, where it was abundant, as a ' Gaunt/ which, Mr. 

 Harting says, signifies ' one who yawns/ from the Anglo-Saxon 

 geanian, and is applicable to these birds, as he has frequently 

 observed in the Grebes and Divers a spasmodic action analogous 

 to gaping or yawning.* But I would with deference venture to 

 submit whether, taking into consideration the shape of the bird 

 ' an elongated cone/ as Yarrell describes it the word ' gaunt ' 

 may not bear the more obvious meaning of ' slim/ ' slender/ for I 

 find the word in Skeat's Etymological Dictionary signifies a 

 ' thin pointed stick/ or a ' tall thin man/ and is there said to be 

 an East Anglian word, presumably Scandinavian, and corre- 

 sponds to the Norwegian gaud. Mr. Harting further adds that 

 in the r^ign of Edward I. land was held in the county of Bucks 

 by the tenure of providing, among other things, ' two Grebes 

 when the King came to Ailesbury ' ; nor does he doubt that duas 

 gantes signified 'two gaunts,' whose soft, satiny plumage was 

 esteemed of great value for the trimming of robes and mantles. 

 On the broads of Norfolk it is known as a ' Loon/ with the 

 meaning of 'clown/ 'slow/ 'ungainly/ with reference to its 

 awkward gait on land, and in Ireland as ' Molrooken/ Some- 

 times it is called the 'Satin Grebe/ from the delicate silvery 

 whiteness and shining silky appearance of the under surface of 

 Zoologist for 1884, p. 350. 



