HORNED GREBE. 



261 



to pink, the very tip light horn-colour ; lore crimson ; irides the same, 

 but round the pupil a circle of white, and the exterior edge of the iris is 

 shaded to nearly white. The head is greatly enlarged by the feathers ; 

 those on the top are black, tinged with dark green ; the cheeks and 

 throat the same ; the feathers very long, forming a sort of ruff ; from 

 the base of the upper mandible originates a broad bar of dull orange- 

 yellow, that passes through the eye to the hind head, growing gradually 

 broader; these form a tuft on each side, and are somewhat erectable, 

 appearing like ears ; the forehead dusky ferruginous ; the back of the 

 neck and upper part of the back dark brown, dashed with ferruginous ; 

 the back, scapulars, and rump, dusky, faintly edged with cinereous ; 

 the wing coverts and twelve first quill-feathers brown ; the thirteenth 

 white on the inner web ; the eleven next all white, except the last, 

 which is brown on the outer web ; the chin is black, a little mottled 

 with white ; the under part of the neck and upper breast, running far 

 behind and down under the wings, bright ferruginous chestnut ; the 

 rest of the under parts glossy satin white ; the back part of the thighs 

 ferruginous brown : legs dusky on the outside, pale on the inside ; toes 

 pale down their middle, dusky at the edges. 



This bird, which was rescued from the hands of a fisherman as he 

 was just going to pick it, was killed near Truro, in Cornwall, on the 

 fourth of May, 1796, and presented to us by a friend. It was a male 

 bird, and is now in our museum. It had no labyrinth, nor any thing 

 uncommon in the trachea. 



Dr. Latham says it is found in Sclavonia. Mr. Pennant says, in his 

 Arct. Zool. ii. No. 417, that the Horned Grebe is found at Hudson's 

 Bay, in June, and breeds in fresh water ; appears at New York in the 

 spring, where it is called the Water Witch, from its vast quickness in 

 diving. 



We cannot help expressing our doubts concerning these birds. If 

 we consider that the Grebes are all subject to great variety in 

 plumage, occasioned by age ; and if we compare the various descrip- 

 tions given by authors of the Horned or Sclavonian, we shall not find 

 any very essential difference from the Eared Grebe. Temminck, how- 

 ever, is of opinion that they are of a distinct species, and easily distin- 

 guished as such. " Some authors," says he, " have confounded this 

 species with the Eared Grebe, (Podiceps auritus) doubtless from the 

 resemblance in the feathers on the head, but it is easy, by comparing 

 the description, to distinguish the adult of this species from the other ; 

 this having the tuft on the head behind the eyes, while in the other 

 it covers the orifice of the ear ; the young of these species are more 



