THE LITTLE GREBE. 193 



September, contained portions of a Gasterosteus ; several speci- 

 mens of the shell Valvata oMusa, and some aquatic insects. An 

 individual;, captured in the eel-nets at Toome Bridge on the 17th 

 of October, contained a mass of the remains of those insects, of 

 which Notonedct were the chief. Another bird, procured this 

 month, had its stomach quite full of similar food ; with which 

 also, and moliusca {Planorhis carinatus and Limneus palmtr'ta), 

 one, obtained at the Shannon near Portumna on the 2nd of 

 March, 1846, was filled; — no feathers appeared in any of the 

 stomachs of the little grebe examined by me. Five perfect speci- 

 mens of the shell Palndhia tentaciila%i [P. impura, Lam.) were 

 reported to me as found in the stomach of another bird.* 



The little grebe is equally common to suitable localities 

 throughout the year in all parts of the island ; — in the north-west 

 of Donegal, as well as south-east of Wexford ; in the north-east 

 of Antrim, as M'ell as south-west of Kerry ; is common inland 

 about the Shannon, on the Connemara lakes, and those of Con- 

 naught generally. It has already been mentioned as breeding in 

 a small pond close to the town of Belfast, About two wild pair 

 breed every year in the pond of the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix 

 Park, DubHn. At Baldoyle also, in the vicinity of the metropolis, 

 they have had a breeding haunt. Localities in which the great- 

 crested grebe nidifies have generally the little grebe for a tenant 

 also, though the former species requires a much greater extent of 

 water than suffices for the other. Mr. E. Davis, jun. (of Clon- 

 mel) observes of the P. minor — " its nest is so well concealed 

 that a search for it is almost useless /' a remark which is made 

 feelingly, from his being an egg-collector. 



On a small and very retired sheet of water at the base of lofty 

 mountains at Aberarder, Inverness-shire, which came under my 

 observation when grouse-shooting there during September 18-1'2, 

 several of these grebes were seen, and one of them shot : they 

 doubtless breed there, far remote from any others of their kindred. 



* Mr. J. Watlcrs. 

 VOL. III. O 



