39 4 GREAT CRESTED GREBE. ClafsIL 



pale red : the tongue is a third-part fhorter than the 

 bill, (lender, hard at the end, and a little divided : on 

 the head is a large dufky creft. The cheeks and 

 throat are fnrrounded with a long pendent ruff, 

 of a bright tawny color : the chin is white : from 

 the bill to the eye is a black line, and above that a 

 white one : the hind part of the neck, and the back 

 are of a iboty hue : the rump, for it wants a tail, is 

 covered with long foft down : the feathers on the 

 rid^e of the wing, and the under coverts are white : 

 all the other wing feathers, except the lefTer quil- 

 feathers are dusky, thofe being white : the breaft and 

 belly are of a moft beautiful filvery white, glofly as 

 fattin, and equal in elegance to thofe of the Grebe of 

 Geneva \ and are applied to the fame ufes : the 

 plumage under the wings is dusky, blended with 

 tawny : the outfide of the legs, and the bottom of 

 the feet are dusky : the infide of the legs, and the 

 toes of a pale green. Thefe birds frequent the meres 

 of Shropfhire and Chejhire, where they breed. Their 

 skins are made into tippets, which are fold at as high 

 price as thofe that come from Geneva, 



This fpecies lays two eggs, white, and of the fize 

 of thofe of a pigeon ; the neft is formed of a few 

 flicks, floating independent among the reeds and flags; 

 the water penetrates it, and the bird fits and hatches 

 the eggs in that wet condition ; the neft is fometimes 

 blown from among the flags into the middle of the 

 water, and the Grebe is then faid to fleer it with its 

 feet, which pafs through : in thefe circumftances, the 

 fable of the Halcyon's neft, its fiuclivaga dcmus, as 



Statiui 



