4790 Tue ZooLocist—FEBRuUARY, 1876. 
resembling food. One I had about two years ago would swallow 
almost anything offered it—small birds (both alive and dead), mice, 
rats, pieces of animal flesh, bits of leather, boot-laces, paper, 
string, &c. 
Gray Phalarope.—A fine adult female specimen, in full winter 
plumage, was shot on the 23rd of November at Beeston Regis, near 
Cromer: its stomach contained remains of minute insects and grit: 
the bird was rather thin in condition. On the 15th of December 
Mr. O. F. Harmer killed one (a male) on Breydon, which still 
retained a good deal of rufous around its throat and neck and on 
the margins of its secondaries. 
Rednecked Phalarope.—A female, in change of plumage, was 
shot on a duck-pond at Hingham on the 13th of November: it was 
very tame and apparently well contented, swimming about with the 
tame ducks, which did not appear to molest it. Beak and tail 
included, the bird measured seven inches and a half in length, 
and from carpal joint to tip four inches and a quarter in the 
wing. 
Rednecked Grebe.—On the 30th of October a fine old female bird, 
in nearly full summer dress, was shot on Breydon Water by Mr.R.F. 
Harmer. On the 8th of December I received a male from Burgh 
St. Peter, having a paler rufous neck; on the 18th another (also a 
male, but a younger bird) from the same locality; and on the 30th 
another male from Sheringham. I find, on referring to my notes, 
that in February, 1865, as many as sixteen birds of this species 
passed into my hands: ample opportunity has thus been afforded 
me for examination of the nature of their food, &c. One fact in 
reference to this species—and indeed with the whole of the grebes 
(examples of each of which I have dissected)—has struck me very 
forcibly at times; that is, the remarkable rapidity with which the 
feathers of the breast and under parts must be produced, or rather 
reproduced, as in most of my dissections I*find that, in addition to 
its food, a quantity of its own feathers, and in some instances their 
stomachs are literally crammed with them—not at any particular 
season of the year either, but at all times. This seems to be a most 
curious provision of nature, and is, I believe, confined exclusively 
to this genus of birds: the feathers are doubtless intended to assist 
in cleansing the stomach by absorbing any extraneous moisture 
left by its food. I have sometimes seen a mass of quite green 
feathers, probably stained by vegetable matter previously contained 
