BIRDS 451 



coast of Britain. No one, who has watched the strong flight of 

 this Colymbus, would imagine that it suffers much harm from 

 severe weather. But the fact is, that the adults shed their wing 

 quills all at once, a proceeding which disqualifies them sadly for 

 contending against a heavy gale. A bird in this condition was 

 captured near Silloth on the 6th of September 1888. It was 

 secured in a shrimping net, and, proving to be uninjured, was 

 subsequently liberated. 



Order PYGOPODES. Fam. PODICIPEDIDJE. 



GREAT CRESTED GREBE. 



Podicipes cristatus (L.). 



This Grebe has been recognised for the last hundred years or 

 more as an occasional winter visitant to Lakeland, but it has 

 never become an established resident or even a numerous winter 

 visitant. The plumage chiefly met with is that of young birds 

 in their first winter. The summer dress is not entirely unknown 

 locally. Eor example, Mr. J. N. Robinson shot a Great 

 Crested Grebe, fast assuming summer dress, on the Eden in 

 March 1884; a similar bird was drowned in a net in the 

 channel off Bowness-on-Solway in March 1886. Mackenzie shot 

 a full-dressed bird on the Eden in July 1869. But the species 

 is quite unaccountably scarce, even as a winter visitant, though 

 perhaps met with rather more frequently on our larger lakes 

 than in the estuary waters of Morecambe Bay or the Solway 

 Firth. Dr. Gough and T. C. Heysham both noticed in their 

 private notes the comparative rarity of the bird in this part of 

 England. 



RED-NECKED GREBE. 



Podicipes griseigena (Bodd.). 



Sometimes, in a hard winter," we get a visit from a Red-necked 

 Grebe, but such an incident is of extremely rare occurrence — 

 surprisingly so if we take into consideration the comparative 

 frequency of the species on the coasts of Northumberland and 

 the Firth of Forth reported by friends who are competent to 



