502 Colymbidce. 



it invariably frequents, that would only impede its progress. 

 Like others of their congeners, they swallow a mass of their own 

 feathers to aid the digestive process, somewhat after the habit of 

 hawks and owls. I am fortunate in having several instances of 

 the occurrence in our county of so rare an inland straggler ; and 

 I am again indebted to Mr. Elgar Sloper for the information that 

 one was killed near Devizes in 1840 ; to Mr. Baker that another, 

 an adult bird, was killed at Westbury in 1874 ; and to the Rev. 

 T. A. Preston that two specimens, which he saw, had been sent 

 to the Marlborough bird-preserver to be converted into plumes 

 for hats ! this was in April, 1870. I have also notices from the 

 Marlborough College Natural History Reports of one killed at 

 Preshute many years since ; and from Mr. Grant of specimens 

 shot at Eastcott in 1868, at Stanton in 1870, and at Lyneham 

 in 1870 ; the latter is now in the possession of Major Heneage at 

 Compton Bassett. Amongst the most advanced ornithologists 

 in England, P. rubricollis is now known as P. grisegena, or 

 ' Gray-cheeked,' as already it had been generally known on the 

 Continent ; in France, Gr&be jou-gris ; in Germany, Graukehliger 

 Steissfuss ; and in Sweden, Grd-strupig Dapping, or 'Gray- 

 throated Dipper/ 



207. SCLAVONIAN GREBE (Podiceps comutus). 



In my former papers on the Ornithology of Wilts, I was 

 obliged to omit this species from the Wiltshire list, as I had no 

 instance before me of its occurrence within the county, though I 

 remarked it did in all probability occasionally appear amongst 

 us, as it is, in comparison with some of its congeners whose 

 visits I am able to record, common in England. In 1864, Mr. 

 Henry Blackmore reported one shot in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Salisbury, which was brought to him in. the flesh on 

 January 19.* The Rev. A. P. Morres has himself shot it in his 

 own parish of Britford. Major Heneage possesses a specimen 

 which was killed at Lyneham in 1870. Mr. Baker, of Mere, 

 possesses one which was shot on a sheep pond at Knoyle in 1874 ; 

 * Zoologist for 1864, p. 9048. 



