CHAPTEE XII. 
THE GREAT CRESTED GREBE 
(Podiceps cristatus ). 
“ Amid the foaming wave thou sat’st 
And steered’st thy little boat, 
Thy nest of rush and water-reed 
So bravely set afloat.” 
Maky Howitt. 
The Great Crested Grebe is also known by the names 
of Tippet Grebe, Crested Ducker, Gaunt, and Cargoose.* 
I can give no further explanation of the numerous local 
names by which this bird is known in Germany, than 
that it is certain that the creature rivets the attention of 
all who know it. 
Our bird equals the Wild Duck in size, being from 
twenty-five to twenty-seven inches in length, by three feet 
across. The male is somewhat larger than the female. 
I have given an ample description of the form of the 
bird earlier in this work, and there remains, therefore, 
nothing further for me to describe now, excepting the 
singular and exceptionably graceful head-dress. Both 
male and female become possessed, as they increase in 
age, of two pointed tufts of feathers on the crown of the 
head, resembling horns, and about the cheeks a circular 
* Brehm here gives a list of local names in German for which we have no 
equivalents, and but few of which are even capable of literal translation.— JV. J. 
