LITTLE GRELE. 
207 
nest as an unsightly heap oi rotten wood. The eggs are often 
much discoloured from being immersed in water ; but this 
does not appear in any way to injure them, or to prevent them 
from hatching in the usual way.” 
Eggs. Three to five in number. Greenish- white in colour, 
w’ith more or less of a chalky covering. Axis, i'65-i'95 inches ; 
diam., i-i5-r3. 
THE LITTLE GREBES. GENUS PODICIPES. 
Podiceps, Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 49 (1829) ; ex Lath. Ind. Orn. 
ii. p. 780 (1790). . . , , \ 
'Type, P. fluviatilis (Tunst.). 
In this genus the tarsus is shorter than the middle toe and 
claw. All the species are of small size, and the distribution of 
this genus is all but cosmopolitan. 
I. THE LITTLE GREBE. PODICIPES FLUVIATILIS. 
Colymbus fluviatilis, Tunstall, Orn. Brit. p. 3 (OIi)- 
Sylbeocydus europceus, Macgill. Brit. B. y. p. 276 (1852). 
Podiceps fluviatilis. Dresser, B. Eur. yiii. p. 659, pi. 633 (1880); 
Saunders, ed. Yarrell s Brit. B. iv. p. 137 (1884). 
Tachyhaptes fluviatilis, B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 204 (1883). 
Podiceps minor, Briss. j Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. 111. p. 468 
(1885); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xx. (1891). 
Podicipes fluviatilis, Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 709 (1889). 
Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above sooty 
black, with a slight greenish gloss. The lower back and rump 
somewhat browner ; wing-coverts and quills sooty brown ; the 
secondaries with a good deal of white on them, sometimes 
confined to the base or to the inner web, but sometimes also 
occupying the whole of the latter, and even extending over the 
greater part of the outer w'eb as well ; tail rudimentary, con- 
sisting of a tuft of soft black feathers ; crown of head and hind 
neck sooty-black like the back, but more distinctly washed 
with green ; lores, region of the eye, and sides of face sooty- 
black, including the fore-part of the ear-coverts and cheeks ; the 
