No. V.] 



ZOOLOGY. 



693 



and account. It comes to New York and the Southern States in the autumn, 

 and leaves them again in April ; its migration is consequently from the North, and 

 the specimens now received indicate the countries in which it breeds and passes the 

 summer. The specimen to be described is supposed to be that of a male ; it mea- 

 sures seventeen inches, including the length of the legs; the bill is short, and the 

 upper "mandible hooked, not straight, as is usual in the Genus ; round the centre of 

 both mandibles is a broad band of black ; under the chin is a conspicuous and strongly 

 contrasted patch of black, which is said to be wanting in the females ; the upper 

 parts are dark brown ; the rest of the throat and cheeks is light brown ; on the breast 

 a patch of the feathers is minutely dotted or sprinkled with black and white ; the 

 belly is also mottled light brown and white ; the secondaries of the wings are tipped 

 with white. 



Podiceps Cornutus. Horned Grebe. 



There are two species of Grebe, having their heads full of dark feathers, with tufts 

 of a bright colour over their eyes, which, though different, have caused some difficulty 

 to naturalists in distinguishing them from each other. These are the P. Cornutus, 

 and the P. Auritus, or Eared Grebe; both are found in Europe, but the former only 

 is native of North America ; it breeds in the countries round Hudson's Bay, and re- 

 tires southward for the winter. It has been stated that on account of the expertness 

 with which this bird dives, that it is peculiarly called by the Americans, the Water 

 Witch ; but that appellation is probably given to all the Grebes indiscriminately, the 

 power of rapidly retiring under water, being equally possessed by them all. The 

 Horned Grebe has been figured in the Planches Enluminees, as La Grebe d'Esclavonie, 

 whence it is sometimes called by writers the Sclavonian Grebe, and it is generally 

 known by that name among British Ornithologists. In its state of adolescence it 

 has been called the Dusky Grebe, (Podiceps Obscurus ;) it is then without any of the 

 brilliant plumage of the mature bird, which also is frequently found in a less perfect 

 state than in the specimen now under notice. Length, including the extent of the feet, 

 seventeen inches ; the bill is one inch long, dark, with the tip white ; both mandibles 

 are bent towards each other so as to meet in a point, which circumstance will be found 

 an unerring mark of distinction between this species and the Eared Grebe ; the upper 

 mandible in that bird is straight, whilst the lower mandible is bent upwards to meet 

 its point, giving the whole bill an appearance of being curved upwards ; the head is 

 covered with a thick coat of glossy black feathers, except, that from the upper man- 

 dible a patch of feathers of a chestnut red proceeds towards and above the eye ; these 

 are short, but the continuation of this marking beyond the eye, consists of elongated 

 feathers, forming a tuft on each side of the head, proceeding about an inch and a 

 half in length in the direction of the neck ; these tufts near the eye are pale ochreous, 



