298 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



part of eels, small roachj tadpoles, and frogs. It is a great 

 diver and very seldom seen on land, often swimming with 

 only the head and neck above water. I am not aware that 

 it breeds in this county. The bird is rarely to be seen on the 

 nest, which is composed of a considerable mass of vegetable 

 matter, half decayed and always very wet and muddy, and so 

 very low in the water that the eggs, which it always covers 

 on leaving, are generally considerably stained. It breeds 

 on several of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. In severe 

 weather this bird betakes itself to the sea. All the Grebes 

 have a curious habit of swallowing their own feathers, a mass 

 of which is very generally to be found in their interior. 



I have a female, taken in the winter plumage, which was 

 shot on a flood in the Level of the Adur, near Henfield, on 

 December 20tb, 1839; and another, in similar dress, was 

 obtained at the same place on the 25th. In the winter, 

 should the sea be very rough, they enter the harbours. 



Mr. Jeffery (p. n.) mentions a male sent him from 

 Sidlesham, the stomach of which was crammed with its own 

 feathers, the remains of fish, &c.; and others which had been 

 killed near Chichester contained much the same. He 

 mentions also several killed in the neighbourhood. The 

 ordinary note of alarm may be expressed by the syllables 

 keck, keck, but in the breeding-season its note is a guttural 

 croak. This Grebe is much prized by the plumassiers. 



RED-NECKED GREBE. 



Podiceps griseigena. 



This species is only a winter visitant, and is much rarer 

 than the preceding, and much more marine in its habits. It 

 has never been found nesting in this country, and leaves us 



