acquired the specific name of Auritus^ or Eared. The ge- 
neral disposition of colours is as represented in the annexed 
fio-ure, but they vary in intensity in different individuals ; 
le«-s slender and black. Excepting the ear-like feathers 
beino- shorter and less bright, the female resembles the male 
in colour. 
Our figure was executed from a fine male bird, which 
with the female were shot on the coast of Essex, in the 
month of March. The species is but rarely seen, and with 
us is one of the scarcest of the genus. We have observed 
it on some of the extensive broads near Yarmouth in April, 
and received a fine living specimen, which was caught in a 
net in the river Tare, in May 1820. It is supposed to 
breed in the fens of Lincoln and Cambridgeshires, as also 
in Romoey Marsh, Kent. 
Its food is fish and aquatic plants. The nest is very 
bulky, and is composed of grass and rush leaves, usually 
interwoven with some tall water plant, for the purpose of 
keeping it stationary; but this expedient often fails, and 
the nest has been observed floating about with the bird in 
it : the eggs are of a dull white, four or five in number ; but 
when the contents of the shell have been removed, is (as is 
the case with all the other species of Grebe we have had 
an opportunity of examining) of a bright green colour in 
the inside, when held up against the light. 
