OE ANIMALS WITH BLOOD. 243 



of the great crested grebe. He says that it is almost always 

 afloat, and that it swims against the winds so that it may 

 not be driven unwillingly to land.* 



The great crested grebe is emphatically in its element 

 on the water, and, during windy weather, I have seen this 

 bird, on the Tring reservoirs, swimming out against wind 

 and waves with evident enjoyment, while coots and other 

 birds were in smoother water. The little grebe or dabchick 

 is clearly described in Athenaeus,t as the little Kolymhis. 



All that Aristotle says about Boskas is that it is one of 

 the heavier web-footed birds living in the vicinity of rivers 

 and lakes, and that it is like a duck, but smaller. | This is 

 not sufficient to identify it, but, making use of the characters, 

 given in Athenseus to the male Boskas, viz., short beak and 

 pencilled plumage, § the Boskas has been supposed to be the 

 wigeon or the common teal. 



From the scanty information given by Aristotle about 

 Aithyia, it seems that it is a sea-bird which hatches out two 

 or three young ones, among the rocks, in early spring, that 

 it does not migrate, and that it feeds on animals washed 

 ashore. |i A bird, called Aithyia, is described by Dionysius,1T 

 and referred to by Homer, Arrian, ^sop, Theophrastus, 

 ^lian, Athenaeus, and Hesychius, and what appears to be 

 the same bird is described by Horace, Virgil, and Pliny 

 under the name Mergus. These descriptions and references 

 are consistent with its being a voracious sea-bird, more es- 

 pecially a gull. Many attempts have been made to identify 

 AitJujia. William Turner, Dean of Wells, identifies it with 

 a cormorant.** Gesner seems to consider it to be a goos- 

 ander, or a gull.tf Belon identifies Aithyia with a bird to 

 which he assigns many features, some of which are to be 

 found in the razor-bill, and his drawing of Aithyia represents 

 a web-footed bird, without the first toe, and with a well- 

 developed beak. 1 1 Sundevall argues that Aithyia is a gull, § § 

 and D'Arcy W. Thompson says it is probably a large gull, 

 e.g., L. marinus or L. argentatus (the herring gull).|i|| 



Excepting the herring-gulls, the birds mentioned above 



* Ixeutica, ii, 12. f Deijm. ix. 52. 



:J; H. A. viii. c. 5, s. 8. § Deijm. ix. 52. 



II H. A. V. c. 8, s. 4, viii. c. 5, s. 7. H Ixeutica, ii. 5. 

 ■■■'■'■'• Avium . . . apud Plin. et Arisfot. . . . Historia, 1544, not paged. 

 If Hist. Anini. iii. 1555, p. 119. 



l\ L'Hist. de la Natitr. des Oyseaux, 1555, pp. 179-80. 

 §§ Die Thierarten des Aristoteles, 1863, p. 158. 

 III! Glossary of GreeJc Birds, 1895, p. 17. 



