When the young are hatched they are most carefully tended by both parents. At first they 

 are able only to swim ; but their parents soon teach them to dive, and like the other Grebes 

 frequently take them on their back. When about a week old the young birds dive with 

 tolerable ease, and are well able to take care of themselves, and hide if danger threatens them. 

 It is not improbable that more than one brood is raised in the season ; but I cannot speak with 

 certainty on this point. 



Although the Little Grebe appears to walk unwillingly, yet it is said to do so with tolerable 

 ease, aud can step along standing quite erect on its legs for some distance like its ally the Eared 

 Grebe ; and Naumann says that it can even run with tolerable facility. 



I fully agree with Professor Schlegel in uniting the Little Grebes which inhabit Asia, the 

 Malay archipelago, and Australia with our European Little Grebe ; for a careful examination of 

 a series of specimens convinces me that they cannot be specifically separated. Our European 

 bird differs greatly in the coloration of the underparts, some specimens being pale greyish, 

 whereas others have the whole under surface of the body blackish grey. As a rule, however, 

 almost all the Little Grebes from India have the underparts rather pale. One labelled Podiceps 

 tricolor, procured in Bouru by Mr. A. E. Wallace, lent to me by Canon Tristram, differs from 

 ordinary European examples only in having all the upper parts blacker, and the underparts 

 black varied with grey ; in measurements it does not differ. A specimen from Galilee, however, 

 is not very much paler, and but little greyer below ; and one from Ternate, labelled P. noctivagus, 

 is intermediate in every respect. Examples from China and India differ in having the under- 

 parts whiter, the whole abdomen of some being silvery grey ; but, again, a specimen from S. W. 

 Formosa is undistinguishable from one shot on the Vaal river, South Africa, either in coloration 

 or measurements. 



I am indebted to Professor Newton for the loan of two specimens of Little Grebes from 

 Madagascar. One of these does not differ from the specimen I have figured in full summer 

 dress, except that the lower neck is very black, and the rest of the underparts, except the 

 flanks and crissum, are silvery white, the black on the lower neck having the appearance of a 

 broad band; but the other bird, which is labelled "Podiceps pelzehii (2), Madagascar, 20th 

 October 1861," differs materially from any other Little Grebe I have examined. The upper 

 parts are as in Podiceps Jluviatilis, but are, if any thing, rather darker ; the chin is pale ashy 

 grey, gradually darkening into dark ashy grey or sooty grey, which colour pervades the throat 

 and sides of the head below the eye ; a narrow white line passes behind the eye along the side 

 of the head ; the sides of the neck are chestnut-red ; the lower throat is blackish, and the under- 

 parts silvery white, the division between the black on the throat aud the white being very 

 distinctly defined ; the flanks and crissum are tinged with sooty brownish grey. It measures — 

 culmen IT inch, wing 4 - 05, tarsus T47, middle toe with claw 1*9. 



Mr. Blanford has described a Little Grebe obtained by Mr. Mandelli in Sikkim as distinct, 

 under the name of "Podiceps albescens, Mandelli" (Stray Feathers, v. p. 486, 1877). I have not 

 seen a specimen ; but Mr. Blanford assures me that it is distinct from Podiceps Jluviatilis, though 

 his description would almost lead one to suppose it to be merely an albino of that species. 



The specimens figured are an adult male in full summer dress, an adult female in winter, 

 and the young birds in down above described. 



