444 
COLYMBIDiE. 
NA TA TOR ES. 
COL YMBIDAE. 
SCLAVONIAN GREBE. 
* 
HORNED GREBE. 
PODICEPS CORNUTUS. 
PLATE CXXI. FIG. III. 
The egg of the Sclavonian Grebe, from which the accom¬ 
panying drawing is made, was brought from Iceland by 
Mr. G. C. Atkinson, in 1831. The nest from which it was 
taken was placed amongst some rushes above the surface 
of the water; it was formed, like those of the other spe¬ 
cies, of sedges, reeds, and other water-plants, and contained 
four fresh-laid eggs, of a pure chalky white, slightly tinted 
with blue, and yet unstained by the materials of the nest. 
Mr. Proctor, who was in Iceland with Mr. Atkinson, 
and has since visited that country, tells me that he found 
this species rather common; that the nest, which is large, 
and composed of a mass of reeds and other aquatic plants, 
floats on the surface of the loch, rising or falling with any 
change in the level of the water; and that the old birds, 
which carry their young about with them, will dive whilst 
they are carefully concealed beneath their wings,—a proof 
that these birds do not, like most of the divers, use their 
wings to assist them in their progress under water. 
