PQBICEPS RUBRIC OLLI S .
PODICEPS RUBRlCOLLIi
Red-necked Grebe.
Podieeps rubricollis. Lath. Ind. Orn., tom. ii. p. 783.
Colymbits rvbricollis, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p.
— subcristatus, Gmel. ib., p. 390.
— Parotis, Gmel. ib.
— griseigena, Bodd.
Pedeaithyia subcristata, Kaup.
Colymbus cucullatus, Pall. (Bonap.).
— ntevius, Pall. (Bonap.).
To speak of this bird as a rarity in our country would be incorrect; still it i
© in a cert
is not its true home; and. the uo<b=:4-<iaSs that have been seen are migrant
rum the Ct
cularly from the north.
It is only during the spring and breeding-season that the curious tippets and fe
adorn the varied members Of the genus Podieeps, and it is seldom in this »tide
Grebe is killed in onr island; still it has occurred in this dress, and thus 1 have t
have the greater interest when i state that the feathers o f the crown and neck ai
tion, as seen in an individual which lived lor some time with Mr. Bartlett, now Sui
Gardens in the Regent’s Park. Mr. Bartlett informed me that the bird became
in a domesticated state changed from its winter to its full summer dress, in which state it died. It is i
and .winter, then, when the head and neck are without ornament, or like the rest of the body, that
necked Grebe visits the Norfolk and Suffolk broads.and other extensive meres and inland water«
larger rivers o f our island: instances o f these occurrences are on record too numerous to mow tic
every county, from Cornwall to Orkney, it occasionally appears. In his ‘ List of Cornish Birds,' 3
speaks o f it as “ quite as often occurring as the last species (P . cristatus), frequenting the ■ •• r-
Sometimes killed towards the spring, when some o f the red feathers appear, characteri-vt« <4 it* »uptii
Macgillivray says, “ I have procured this species, with all the other Grebe*, in the Frith T
in his work on the ‘ Birds o f Ireland,’ states that he had opportunities o f cxamin««#
stomach o f one of these were found the remain« of several shrimps ( Cnt/tym ■ ■ u’4 hsbc*,
bones o f small Gadidse, a pipe-fish ( Sgngnathtu acmy ten inches in length' $ vaiwbw'i \t-uim
bird’s own body : uone of these five individuals were adult.
hat the Ret
n their uatu
snt o f the 2k
te and farail
o f Noewidi
“ A regular though a
and inland waters betwc
obtained are in immatur
traces o f the red throat.
. occasionally remain to I
beautiful specimen in fi
2nd of April, ll848, and
the occurrence o f thi* hi
it very a«w»»cons visitant
Wo the beglaubig o f Novt
•i Norfolk has
tome* <*> Mr fit#»Mf%''tMNNMMk watt shot a
ter at ot* the 22nd j hut rittce that date their
r of tins speci
y rare. A ve
louth about t
appearance be
in
his ‘ List
in spring to my knowledge, has been the 18th o f March. The he*- Mr tio u t, o f Norwich, Norfolk Birds,’ states th at a pair o f these birds were once killed tmvr the Foundry Bridge in t !
Temminck states that the Red-necked Grebe is nowhere more jdcntdfei than in Holstein; t
informed Mr. Yarrell that it “ is common, during the breeding-scason, o« many of the shallo
at the head of the Bothnian Gulf, particularly between Pitea and Ltdea, They seem to be c<
vicinity o f the coast o f the Baltic. I have never met with them anywhere in the interior o:
except in Seejna, and in the southern provinces o f Sweden, although the whole oi Northen
abounds with lakes. The character o f these lakes, where alone I have seen and procured spe
Red-necked Grebe so far north as latitude 6 6 °, is precisely similar to that o f the broads in N<;
mere!« o f Holland, where some' of the Grebes are so numerous. Swedish ornithologist* have
locality of this Grebe to the southern parts o f Sweden; but having procured the old aud y*
August, and seen them in considerable numbers, two years in succession, *s the *ko« tocaht
can exist tliat they a r e regular visitants. The eggs I d id n o t see ; hut -'te- gaeaamAs, on fiudi;
in the habit o f leaving one egg, and the female will v-tst&msr to lay-, w* ® one is left, u