( sm ) 



ON THE MORE IMPORTANT ADDITIONS TO OUR 

 KNOWLEDGE OF BRITISH BIRDS SINCE 1899. 



BY 



H. F. WITHERBY and N. F. TICEHURST. 



Part XIX. 



{Continued from page 334.) 



BLACK-NECKED GREBE Podicipes nigricollis C. L. Biehm. 

 S. page 723. 



Oxfordshire. — A pair shot on a large pond near Bloxham 

 on September 19th, 1899, were thought to have bred, or 

 attempted to breed, somewhere in the district (O. V. Aplin, 

 Ihis, 1902, p. 165, and Zool., 1903, p. 10). 



It was reported by Mr. Aplin in 1904 that some well-known 

 ornithologists, who wished to remain anonymous, had 

 discovered that several pairs of these birds nested and reared 

 their young that year in Britain. The birds were on a shallow 

 lake surrounded with marshy ground. Early in June four 

 pairs were seen with one, two, two, and three young respec- 

 tively, in one part of the lake, while further off was a fifth 

 pair with rather larger young and two unattached adults 

 (O. V. Aphn, ZooL, 1904, pp. 417-420). In 1906 Mr. Aphn 

 announced that he had himself been able to pay a visit to the 

 place, and had seen four or five adult birds in full breeding 

 plumage, but they had not at that time, he thought, yet 

 hatched their young {t.c, 1906, p. 315). 



Middlesex. — The plate in Sowerby's " British Miscellany " 

 of a male and female Grebe with nest and eggs taken on a 

 pond on Chelsea Common in 1805, and ascribed by Mr. Harting 

 {Birds of Middlesex, p. 244, and Handbook, p. 269) to this 

 species, is stated by Mr. Aplin to represent Little Grebes in 

 summer plumage {ZooL, 1904, p. 266). 



Cheshire. — One was shot on Dee Marshes, near Chester, 

 in November, 1906 (A. Newstead, t.c, 1907, p. 153). 



Lancashire. — An adult male in full summer plumage 

 was caught alive on a pond at Middleton, near Lancaster, on 

 July 28th, 1904 (H. W. Robinson, t.c, 1904, p. 350)., 



Northumberland. — Two seen in the middle of June were 

 in winter plumage (A. Chapman, Birdlife of the Borders, 2nd ed., 

 p. 94). 



