174 
COLYMBIM. 
with them, and exhibit no indication of any having been eaten, 
though all the grebes of this species opened by me had the 
stomach either wholly or partially filled with their own feathers. 
In March 1838, several great-crested grebes were brought on sale 
to Dublin. One has been shot on the sea, near the island of 
Ireland's Eye. In Mr. Watters' collection there is an immature 
bird, obtained fresh in Eebruary 1848 (said to have been killed 
on a river in Kildare), and one in adult summer plumage, shot on 
the 29th of July, 1849. In the very severe weather of January, 
1850, several were sent to the metropolis. 
This grebe has been procured during winter in Wexford Har- 
bour, - * and more than once on the coast of Waterford ; — at Dun- 
garvan, one (“ between two and three years old," as described by 
Jenyns) was killed about the 1st of March, 1838.+ Immature 
birds only, obtained in Cork Harbour, are noticed in the f Eauna' 
of that county. On the 16th of January, 1849, one of these grebes 
was shot there below Cove, when in company with some divers ; 
and on the 5th of Eebruary a flock of five was seen on the sea, at 
the back of Cove Island. f On the coast of Kerry it is occa- 
sionally procured. § The Kev. T. Knox, of Toomavara (Tippe- 
rary), and previously resident at Killaloe, on the Shannon, wrote to 
me, on the 24th of November, 1836, that several great-crested grebes 
had, at different periods, come under his notice. Three of them 
(one in adult summer, the others in immature or winter, plumage) 
were, in July 1837, kindly sent by Mr. Knox for my inspection. 
In 1840, 1 learned from a person resident in Connemara, that this 
species is found “in winter" on Loughs Corrib and Mask. || Mr.lt. J. 
Montgomery, visiting the west of Ireland in Eebruary 1850, heard 
from fowlers that “ loons" are in considerable numbers on those 
two lakes. He went in pursuit of them, but was unable to ap- 
proach within shot, or near enough to determine the species, which 
most probably is the great-crested grebe. He was told that they 
are more numerous in summer than in winter. Their nests or 
* Major T. Walker. f Mr. R. Davis, jun. £ Mr. R. Warren, jnn. 
§ Mr. R. Chute. || Mr. W. M c Calla. 
