AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 281 



and good-will on the part of our boatmen; but 

 success in this pursuit was by no means so easy of 

 attainment as may be imagined, as the boats in use 

 at the time of which I am writing were very clumsy, 

 the boatmen timid, for the most part money-grasping 

 to a marvellous extent, and without a spark of the 

 sporting instinct. The old proverb " No money no 

 Swiss " was indeed most fully borne out by our 

 experiences in Grebe-hunting, for although we paid 

 these Ouchy boatmen an exorbitant day's wage, fed 

 them liberally, and generally made them a present of 

 the Grebes that we shot (the skins being at the time 

 worth from eight to ten shillings apiece), they were 

 as a rule sulky, lazy, and uncivil. Another difficulty 

 was that the pursuit of the Grebe was hopeless if 

 there was the slightest ripple upon the Lake, as 

 when pressed these birds will regain their ' wind ' by 

 merely getting their nostrils above water for a few 

 seconds, and a Grebe's beak may very easily be over- 

 looked at a short distance in rippling water by the 

 keenest of human eyes. When wounded, the Grebes 

 would not infrequently come up close to the boat, 

 and more than once we were entirely baffled by this 

 dodge. 



224. RED-NECKED GREBE. 



Podiceps griseigena. 



My only authority for including this species 

 amongst the Birds of Northamptonshire is a letter 

 from the late Captain G. Ashby Ashby, who informed 

 me that he killed a Eed-necked Grebe on Naseby 

 Reservoir on February 17, 1876. I may add that I 

 have no doubt whatever as to correct identification 



