274 PODICEPS CMSTATUS BREEDING IN THE PLAINS. 



JoMccp ttfetfttui kul&w® in tjre |lain*. 



By A. Anderson. 



To my friend, Mr. It. Nicholson (whose good offices I had 

 secured in the matter of procuring varieties for me), the orni- 

 thological world is indebted for the first authentic information 

 on the breeding of the Crested Grebe in the plains of India. 

 I have now in my possession several young specimens of this 

 Grebe, which were shot in various parts of the Doab as well as in 

 Oudh, which prove beyond a doubt that they were bred in those 

 localities. These examples are in a downy state, and their wing 

 feathers have hardly commenced to grow. The following is 

 an extract of a letter from Mr. Nicholson, dated the 31st 

 January last : 



" Yes ; I shot two young Grebe in the Hurdui district, which 

 I send you, and saw a great number of young birds, but 

 could not get more, as I had no boat. 



" I came across these young birds on almost every jheel in 

 the Hurdui district. Judging from their different stages, I 

 should say that they were bred from July to October. An old 

 Mullah (boatman) assured me that they laid in ' bhadonj and 

 that he had, on numerous occasions, come across their eggs ; 

 these he described as being white, aad rather large for the size 

 of the bird. There is not the slightest doubt of their being 

 the young of the Grebe, for the old birds kept swimming close 

 to their young, making a queer sound, something like the noise 

 from a cracked trumpet. I shot one of the parent birds as 

 well, &c." 



Since the above was received, several of my correspondents 

 have confirmed what Mr. Nicholson has written, by procuring 

 immature birds, which ivere unable to Jly, in the larger jheels of 

 the Futtehgurh district. 



The swamps in this part of the country dry up, as a rule, by 

 the end of May. The Grebe must, therefore, betake themselves 

 to the rivers, or perhaps they migrate to the north of Oudh, 

 returning again in August and September (when the jheels re- 

 fill) for the purpose of fulfilling the golden law ; the majority of 

 them, however, push up northwards. 



I know of one jheel, or rather a lake (name omitted for obvi- 

 ous reasons), where upwards of a hundred birds were slaugh- 

 tered in the course of one week ! 



I have made arrangements to take their eggs in person next 

 autumn, when I hope to be able to add some particulars on this 

 subject. 



