512 PODICIPEDIDiE PODICIPBS 



Descrixition. Adult in breeding plumage. — General colour above 

 including the throat, neck all round and upper breast very dark 

 ashy-black, darkest on the head and nape, where the feathers are 

 longer and form a crest ; behind the eye a bunch of long hair-like 

 projecting plumes, straw yellow above, more or less chestnut below; 

 outer primaries ashy-brown, white at their bases, the white increas- 

 ing towards the inner primaries and the secondaries which are 

 pure white ; sides and flanks chestnut, rest of lower surface pure 

 white. 



Iris crimson with a narrow white ring surrounding the pupil ; 

 bill blackish ; legs blackish, dusky green at the joints. 



Length about 12-5; wing 5'5 ; tail about 1-0; culmen 1-0; 

 tarsus 1'5. In non-breeding dress the top of the head, back of the 

 neck and back are slaty-black, the chin, throat and sides of the 

 nape white ; the ear-coverts and fore neck grey ; below which the 

 sides, flanks and thighs are tinged with grey throughout. 



According to Ayres the young birds are striped brown and black 

 on the back, white and black on the chin and throat, their bodies 

 being pure white. 



Distribution. — The Eared Grebe is found throughout Central 

 and South Europe, and Asia, from Great Britain to China and 

 Japan, but does not occur in India or Southern Asia except near 

 Aden. In the Ethiopian region it has only been met with in 

 Abyssinia and Angola, and within our limits it is by no means 

 common. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Vogel vlei 

 in Paarl division, breeding (Layard), Cape division and Deelfontein, 

 January (S. A. Mus.) ; Transvaal, breeding (Ayres) ; Bechuanaland 

 — Tebra country near Lake Ngami, April (Eriksson in S. A. 

 Mus.) ; German South-west Africa — Walvisch Bay, November, rare 

 (Andersson). 



Habits. — This Grebe was unknown in South Africa until 

 the year 1859, when Layard found it nesting in considerable 

 numbers in a large lake known as Vogel vlei, between "Wellington 

 and Hermon, about fifty miles from Cape Town. Subsequently 

 Ayres met with it in the Transvaal, probably near Potchef stroom , 

 though this is not specifically mentioned, where it also breeds in the 

 shallow lagoons. The nests are usually floating, and constructed of 

 sedge and rushes, they are about a foot in diameter, and two 

 or three inches out of the water, and the eggs, which are from three 

 to five in number, and chalky white when first laid, are generally 



