30 GREBE. 



Colymbus fluviatilis, Bris. vi. 59. Id. Svo. ii. 374. Fn. Helv. 



Yacapitzahoac, Rail, 177. 



Der kleiue Taucher, Bechst. Dents, ii. 79S. 



Le Grebe de la riviere, ou le Castagneux, Buf. viii. 244. pi. 20. PI. enl. 905. 



Didapper, Dipper, or Dobchick, Will. Engl. 340. pi. 61. 



Little Grebe, Gen. Syn. v. 289. Br. Zool. ii. No. 226. Id.fol. 134. pi. F. Id. 1812. 



ii. p. 137. Bewick, ii. pi. in p. 154. Lewin, v. pi. 100. Id. xxxvii. 2. — the egg. 



Walcot, i. pi. 105. Donov. ii. pi. 56. Graves, Orn. v. i. Orn. Diet. Sf Supp. 



LENGTH ten inches, breadth sixteen ; weight seven ounces. 

 Bill reddish brown, almost an inch long ; irides reddish hazel ; 

 plumage on the upper parts of the head, neck, and body, reddish 

 brown, very pale on the rump; sides of the head and fore part of the 

 neck and chin yellowish grey ; in old birds the cheeks are light fer- 

 ruginous ; breast and belly white, mottled with ash-colour and red ; 

 thighs and vent grey ; legs dirty green. The male and female are 

 much alike, and both vary according to age, as in other species. 



In some adult birds the general colour is cinereous, beneath paler, 

 mottled and waved with glossy white ; on the wing a white patch ; 

 chin mottled dusky and white. One of this description was shot near 

 Putney, and in the collection of Mr. Plasted, of Chelsea. In the 

 same place is a younger specimen, brownish ash-colour above, 

 beneath paler, glossed like satin ; sides of the neck and the chin 

 striped with dusky ; chin white ; bill dirty red, with a black tip; 

 legs greenish black. Shot near Battersea. 



This is the most common of all the Genus in this kingdom, few 

 fresh waters being without it. It makes a large nest, in the water, 

 composed of grass, and other water plants, and lays five or six 

 cinereous white eggs, and the nest so placed is constantly wet; how 

 far this is essential to the hatching of the young brood, does not 

 seem manifest; it might be supposed, that the natural warmth of the 

 bird, bringing on a fermentation in the vegetables, produces a hot 

 bed fit for the purpose ; but Colonel Montagu assures us, that he 

 never could discover the least warmth in the nest. It lives on the 

 same food as others of the Genus; is an admirable diver, and seems 



