COURTSHIP OF THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 493 
standard work of descriptive ornithology will give full details of 
the plumage and taxonomic characters. The Great Crested 
Grebe, then, is of course a water-bird, and essentially a diving-bird. 
Its tail is remarkable in being reduced to a few tiny feathers, 
and its legs are set as far back as possible, so as to have the 
position of a ship’s propellers. Its body is long and approaches 
the cylindrical; the neck is very long and flexible, the head flat, 
the beak sharp, long, and powerful. In colour, the Great 
Crested Grebe has back and flanks of much the same smoky 
mottled brown as its small cousin, the Dabchick; the underparts, 
however, including the chin, throat, and front of the neck, are of 
an exquisitely pure white (furnishing the ‘‘ Grebe” of commerce). 
The back of the neck is very dark brown. 
The chief ornament of the bird, the crest from which it takes 
its name, is reserved for the head. In these pages I shall use 
the word crest to denote all the erectile feathers of the head taken 
together. The crest, as thus defined, consists of two parts—the 
ear-tufts (or ears, a8 for brevity’s sake they may be called) and 
the ruff. 
Both are composed of special narrow, elongated feathers, stiff, 
and formed of comparatively few barbs. Those constituting the 
ears are black, all of about the same length, and spring in two 
tufts from the top of the head, above the tympanum. The ruff 
is bigger and more elaborate: it consists of a broad band of 
feathers springing from the sides of the face and head, their free 
ends pointing downwards and backwards on either side of the 
neck. If we take the part of the head behind the eye, we find 
that at first the feathers are of the ordinary length, then slightly 
elongated (the beginning of the ruff), and then longer and longer 
till we get to the hinder border of the ruff. Corresponding to 
the increase of length there is a change in colour., The proximal 
(upper) part of the ruff is white, then we get to vivid chestnut, 
and this deepens gradually to glossy black (see any good picture 
of the Crested Grebe). 
Both ruff and ears are extremely erectile; and as the birds 
make great play with them during all the actions of courtship, 
the various positions into which they can be put must be 
described. 
Let us begin with the ears. These, when depressed or shut, 
stretch straight out backwards, continuing the line of the flat 
head’s crown. When shut forcibly, the feathers of which they 
are made are close together and all parallel. 
Often, however, they are not thus “at attention,” but ‘standing 
at ease,” to use a military metaphor: then the tufts as a whole 
point in the same direction, but their component feathers diverge 
and bristle-out a bit, This seems to be the usual and most 
restful condition. 
Further, the tufts may be erected: and they may be erected in 
two ways—either laterally ov vertically. When erected laterally, 
they stick out horizontally at right angles to the head, so that 
35% 
