504 Colymbidce. 



years previously. The Marlborough College Natural History 

 Reports mention one caught near the ' Burnt House,' Savernake 

 Forest, on January 27, 1878; and Mr. Grant records three 

 specimens which have come to him in the flesh : viz., in 1864 

 from Stanton, in 1865 from Chitterne, and in 1877 from Keevil. 

 The most modern school of ornithologists call it nigricollis, and 

 certainly the ' black neck ' does offer a point of distinction ; but 

 auritus, ' eared,' was the name used by all our older authorities : 

 Pennant, Montagu, Bewick, Fleming, Selby, Yarrell, Temminck, 

 etc. It may also be at once distinguished from the species last 

 described, and which it much resembles, by the beak, which is 

 bent slightly upwards and depressed at the base. Canon Tristram 

 gives an admirable account of a colony of Eared Grebes, the most 

 gregarious of the genus, which he found breeding in societies 

 more densely crowded than any rookery, on Lake Halloula, in 

 Algeria : the nests, formed like those of other Grebes, were raised 

 on artificial islets, frequently almost touching each other, and 

 sometimes piled on stout foundations rising from more than a 

 yard under water.* Mr. Cecil Smith, who has kept this bird in 

 confinement, says, ' Grebes do not sit erect, but with face to the 

 ground; but when walking or running, the posture is nearly 

 erect, and they proceed along with a waddling gait. When 

 resting, they do not place their feet upon the ground, but turn 

 them up so as to place them under their wings, which they 

 cover with their side feathers, and thus entirely hide them from 

 view. They will also rest in the same manner upon the water.f 

 In France it is Grebe oreillard ; in Germany, Gehorter oder Ohren 

 Steissfuss ; in Italy, Colimbo Suasso turco. 



209. LITTLE GREBE (Podiceps minor). 



We come now to the commonest and best known of all the 

 genus, the familiar ' Dabchick/ which may be generally seen on 

 every retired river or large pond ; a shy retiring species, disap- 

 pearing beneath the surface at the first alarm, and only re- 



* Ibis for 1860, p. 159. 



t ' Birds of Somerset,' p. 532. 



