Eared Grebe. 503 



and in the winter of 1877 a policeman, walking down the street 

 in Warminster on a cold, dark night, when it was snowing 

 heavily, heard a flight of birds passing overhead, and shortly 

 after was startled by hearing a heavy thud behind him, which 

 turned out to be a Sclavonian Grebe, its plumage and wings 

 being so encrusted with frozen snow that it could no longer use 

 them. Like the last-named species, it is a winter visitor here, 

 retiring in spring to breed in the far north. In breeding-plumage 

 it may well be called cornutus, for it not only has a fine chestnut 

 tuft about the head, but below the chin, and round the sides of 

 the neck, a rich dark-brown ruff, giving it a very distinguished 

 appearance. It is also known as the * Dusky ' and the ' Horned ' 

 Grebe ; the former referring to its immature or winter dress, the 

 latter to its summer plumage. Our countryman, Colonel Montagu, 

 was the first to make it known as British. Like others of the 

 family, it has been known to dive with its young under its wings 

 on occasion of alarm, and has also been seen to fly with the 

 young birds on its back, when it was necessary to transport them 

 to a place of safety otherwise than beneath the water ; for Sir R. 

 Payne-Gallwey* points out that the idea common in Ireland, 

 that the bird flies with its young under its wings, is manifestly 

 an error, since no bird could sustain its flight, and at the same 

 time grip an object under the wings. In France it is Grebe cornu 

 and le Grebe d'Esclavonie ; in Germany, Gehornter Steissfuss. 



208. EARED GREBE (Podiceps auritus). 



This is the rarest British Grebe, and I am glad to be able to 

 include it in our Wiltshire list : indeed, I have several records of 

 its capture ; the first on the authority of the late Rev. G. Marsh, 

 who informed me that a specimen was killed at Christian Malford ; 

 the second and third from the no less reliable testimony of the 

 Rev. G. Powell, who on March 24, 1875, wrote me word that he 

 had that afternoon seen a specimen of this rare visitor to Wilts. 

 It was killed near Knoyle, and (strange to say) another specimen 

 was killed, or picked up dead, in the same locality, not many 

 ' The Fowler in Ireland,' p. 142. 



