THE GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 
177 
The name of tippet grebe Avas bestowed on this species in 
consequence of its plumage being used by ladies in the now 
exploded adornments bearing that name, and consequently the 
poor birds were much persecuted. But, though tippets are to 
be numbered with the things that were, we have the indubitable 
authority of my friend Mr. Yarrell, that grebe-skins are still 
“in great request for making into muffs* for ladies, or, more 
frequently, to cut up into narrow strips as trimming for pelisses.” 
Pennant (in 1776), writing of their “ beautiful skins,” mentions 
that “ the under side of them being drest with the feathers on, 
are made into muffs and tippets ; each bird sells for about four- 
teen shillings, * * * as high a price as those that come 
from Geneva : * * * its skin is out of season about February, 
losing then its bright colour : and in the breeding-time its breast 
is almost bare.”t The Lake of Geneva has always been a great 
resort of this species, and in the admirable memoir of M. Necker 
on the birds of the neighbourhood of the city of that name, the 
Podiceps cristatus is fully descanted on.J Towards the end of 
October numbers of young birds arrive there, and become objects 
of the chase. The mode of proceeding is fully described (p. 85), 
and it is stated that many boats are occupied during winter in 
the pursuit of the grebe, which is often very lucrative, as for each 
bird the furriers give from six to eight francs. Mr. Yarrell, too, 
(p. 301) publishes an account of grebe-hunting on the Lake of 
Geneva, communicated to him by an English gentleman who had 
been witness to the sport. In 1846, I was informed by M. Alex. 
P. Prevost of Geneva, that the bird had then become very scarce 
on the lake. Mr. Selby (p. 395) briefly describes the chase of one 
of these grebes by Sir William Jardine and himself, on a lake in 
the vicinity of Rotterdam ; — “ an hour and a half s severe exer- 
* They are always on sale in Dublin for ladies’ cuffs, for a pair of which the skin 
of one bird is requisite. Seeing three pair exhibited in a furrier’s window there in 
July 1850, I inquired the price, which was only 7s. 6d. a pair. They were stated to 
have been brought from Switzerland. 
t Pennant describes the species as two, under the names of tippet and great- 
crested grebe. 
| Memoires Soc. Phys. and d’Hist. Nat. Geneve, vol. ii. (1828). 
VOL. III. N 
