EARED GREBE. 301 



EARED GREBE. 



Podicefs nigricollis. 



This is the rarest of the familyj making its appearance, at 

 uncertain times, oflf our coast, and on the pools and rivers, 

 as well as in the ditches in the levels. Nearly all the speci- 

 mens being met with in the winter, it is therefore rarely 

 found in the breeding-plumage, and never nests in this 

 country, yet the only one I ever shot myself was in that 

 plumage. I obtained it on the Salts Farm, near Lancing, in 

 April 1854, 



Mr. Booth records one, in his ' Rough Notes,^ which had 

 been caught by a dog in Pevensey Level, and it being put in 

 a tub of water, he had a good opportunity of examining it. 

 He further tells us that while shooting between Shoreham 

 and Worthing, on December 10th, 1879, he came at half-ebb 

 tide on several of these birds among the old groynes and break- 

 waters, which form an attractive resort for small fish, shrimps, 

 . prawns, and other marine animals which here find shelter 

 among half-decayed piles and planks. '' During the after- 

 noon," says Mr. Booth, " I plainly identified every species of 

 our British Grebes, obtaining specimens in full winter plumage 

 of the Great Crested, the Red-necked, and Eared, as well as 

 passing and closely examining several Sclavonian in the shoal 

 water near the sands," also seeing a pair of Little Grebes ; 

 he further adds that one or two other specimens of the Eared 

 Grebe were obtained by local gunners along the Sussex coast 

 during the last few years, all in full winter plumage. Mr. 

 Dennis mentions, in a letter to me, without date, that he had 

 a beautiful specimen, killed with a stone by a boy at Cuck- 

 mere. 



