EARED GREBE. 
Uo 
NA TA TORES. 
COL YMBTDJE. 
EARED GREBE. 
PODICEPS AURITUS. 
‘plate cxxi. FIG. II. 
As far as we are acquainted with the habits of the 
Eared Grebe, they resemble those of the species with 
which we are more familiar. It breeds, like them, on the 
margins of ponds, and lays four or five eggs. 
There is a peculiarity of form in the eggs of the Grebes 
which immediately distinguishes them from those of all 
other birds; they are widest in the middle, and taper so 
regularly towards each end, that it is not easy to distin¬ 
guish that which is in other eggs the broader end. The 
shell is thick, and the material which forms it seems to 
be supplied in profusion, and frequently rises in uneven 
globules upon its surface, such as are often seen upon di¬ 
minutive fowls’ eggs. They are rarely met with of their 
original purity. When first laid, they are of a spotless 
chalky white, sometimes slightly tinted with blue; but, by 
coming in contact with the wet materials of the nest, by 
which they are also covered on the departure of the bird, 
they soon assume a very different aspect, and become be¬ 
smeared and thoroughly stained throughout with various 
shades of dirty green. Thienemann has drawn his figures 
from some of these highly-coloured eggs, and made them 
to appear more like the eggs of grouse than of Grebes. 
