tion of the internal parts of this specimen, as mentioned by
the Rev. L. Jenyns in his Manual of the British Vertebrate
Animals, page 253, was, “ stomach membrano-muscular,
cascal appendages each one inch and a half in length.” The
other figure, in the state, as to plumage, in which it has been
called the Dusky Grebe, wras taken from a specimen obtained
in the London market in March, 1825, and which afterwards
formed part of the Author’s collection. His note of the
internal appearance of this bird was, “ stomach muscular, a
true gizzard, contained insects,* two long cmcal appendages,
from four to five inches each.” From the difference in the
substance of the parietes of the stomach in these two specimens,
and particularly in the comparative length of the
caecal appendages, the Author was at first induced to suppose
that Montagu and the Editor of the last edition of Pennant’s
British Zoology were correct in considering the Sclavonian
Grebe distinct from the Dusky Grebe; but he was subsequently
inclined to believe that though the specimen killed
in summer plumage was adult, the other was still a more
mature bird. He found the csecal appendages in Podiceps
cristatus, killed in its first winter, when six months old,
only half an inch long; but in an old bird these appendages
measured two inches in length.
* Dr. Fleming, in his History of British Animals, page 132, says, “ In the
stomach of a young male, shot 18th January, 1809, I found a concretion,
upwards of half an inch in diameter, consisting of its own belly feathers, closely
matted together. Montagu, in his Supplement, states that he has observed the
same occurrence in the Red-necked and Crested species. Are these to be considered
as analogous to bezoars ? ”
P o d ic e p s n ig r ic o l l is , C. L. Brehm.*
THE EARED GREBE.
Podiceps auritus.
T he E a r ed G r e b e is the rarest of the five species of
Grebes found in the British Islands; and during the many
years that Montagu devoted attention to ornithology he
only obtained one specimen. It is a southern species, which
is distinguished from the Sclavonian Grebe by being a little
smaller in size ; in having the hill bent slightly upwards,
the curve being most conspicuous in the lower mandible;
and in the part between the base of the hill and the eye
never carrying any ferruginous feathers at any age or season.
The reddish, or golden-yellow feathers, when present, arise
behind the eye, covering the orifice of the ears. Examples
Handb. Naturg. Yög. Deutschlands, p. 963 (1831).