260 
HORNED GREBE. 
wing’ like the neck ; the rump is white ; the tail consists of ten black 
feathers, crossed with a larg’e semilunar bar of white ; the exterior 
feather white on the outer marg-in, except at the tip ; legs short and 
black. In some the breast is described to be white ; in young birds this 
part is marked with narrow dusky lines. The female resembles the 
male. 
This bird is only occasionally met with in this country ; every autumn 
perhaps produces a few ; and instances have not been wanting to prove 
they have sometimes bred with us. In the Supplement to the General 
Synopsis, an account is given of a young one being shot in May. A 
pair is also mentioned to have begun a nest in Hampshire, but being 
disturbed, forsook it and went elsewhere. The nest is said to be made 
of bents, and lined with soft materials ; the eggs, four in number, of 
bluish white, marked with pale brown spots. It builds in the hollow 
of a tree, and the nest has been remarked to be extremely fetid ; pro- 
bably occasioned by the faeces of the young’, and not by the filthy food 
by which it has been supposed they feed their young. 
These birds have been seen in most parts of Great Britain, from 
Scotland to the most southern parts, as we find on record ; and we 
have known it killed in South Wales and in Devonshire. With us they 
seem to prefer barren situations. Their food is insects and worms. It 
is found plentiful in the deserts of Russia and Tartary : they are seen 
in small flocks at Gibraltar, in the month of March, on their passage 
northward, supposed to come from Africa. Sonnini saw them on the 
banks of the Nile ; and Bechstein informs us that in Germany they fre- 
quent the meadows all the summer. In the month of August they 
form themselves into families in the plains, and early in September 
they leave that country, returning again in the month of April. 
HORNED DOUKER. — A name for the Horned Grebe. 
HORNED GOOSE. — A name for the Brent Goose. 
HORNED GREBE (JPodiceps cornutus, Latham.) 
* Podiceps cornutus, Lath. Ind. 2. 782. sp. 5. — Colymbus, sine Podioeps minor, 
Raii, Syn. p. 190. 14. — Colymbus cornutus, Gmel. 1. 591. sp. 19. — Colymbus 
cornutus minor, Briss. 6. p. 50. 5. — Le Petit Grebe cornu, Buff. 8. 237 
Horned Grebe or Dobcbick, Edw. Glean. Tab. 145. bad fig. — Lath. Syn. 5.288. 
6. var. A. — Temm. 2.721. — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 131. 
YOUNG. 
Podiceps obscurus, Lath. Ind. 2. 782. sp. 4. — Colymbus minor, Briss. 2. 56. No. 
7. — Dusky Grebe, Lath. Syn. 5. 285. — Mont. Diet. — Colymbus obscurus, Gmel. 
Syst. 1. p. 592. — Colymbus caspicus, Gmel. Syst. 4. p. 137. — Ib. 1. p. 593 
Le petit Grebe, Buff'. Ois. 8. p. 232. — Black and white Dobchick, Edw. t. 96. 
This bird is about thirteen inches and a half in length to the end of 
the rump-feathers; breadth twenty-two inches; the bill is near an inch 
long, dusky, lighter at the base of the under mandible, and inclining 
