glossy; the tail is altogether wanting. The young are two or three years old before they assume the adult plumage, a circumstance that has led to the erroneous multiplication of species. During the breeding season, not a few of the Grebes have the head ornamented with beautiful tufts, or frills of silky feathers, which produce a very elegant appearance; these they lose in the autumn: the Horned Grebe, the Crested Grebe, the Eared Grebe, &c. take their distinctive names from the character and position of these plumes. The preceding sketches of the head of the Crested Grebe, in the ornamented plumage of summer, and the plain dress of winter, will illustrate our meaning.

The generic characters consist in the bill being straight, compressed, and elongated into a sharp point; the nostrils oblong; the tarsi placed far backward, and very compressed; the feet consisting of three toes before, which are lobated, the external being the longest, and of

THE GREBE'S FOOT.

a hind toe, small, and also lobated. These characters of the feet will be made intelligible by the above sketch.

The tail is absolutely wanting; the wings are short and

concave.

The geographical range of the present genus is very extensive, some species being found in every quarter of the globe. In habits all are strikingly identical.

The CRESTED GREBE (Podiceps cristatus) is one of the largest of the genus; it is indigenous in the British

islands and the temperate parts of Europe. It breeds annually in the fens and meres of Shropshire and Cheshire, whence it retires in winter to the mouths of rivers and inlets of the sea, where it can obtain a supply of food, when the lakes and marshes are locked up with frost. Its quickness in diving is very extraordinary, for it is able to avoid the shot from a fowlingpiece, if not fired by a percussion lock. Nor less so is its rapidity beneath the water, where it will sometimes make two hundred yards at a single stretch, before rising to breathe, and then only just raise the bill above the surface, so as to take in the necessary supply of air. Mr. Selby states, that when making a tour in Holland with Sir W. Jardine, he gave chase to a bird of this species upon the lakes in the neighbourhood of Rotterdam; and that, though in a boat

conducted by those accustomed to the business, it cost them upwards of an hour and a half's severe exertion to get within range and secure it by a shot through the neck.

The Crested Grebe is not confined to Europe, it is found in America also, and is mentioned in the Fauna Boreali-Americana as having been killed by Dr. Richardson upon the Saskatshewan.

This beautiful species builds a floating nest of vegetables, such as flags, grasses, &c. amidst reeds and similar herbage. The eggs are three or four in number, and of a greenish white.

The colour of the adult, in full plumage, is as follows: -Crown of the head and long occipital tufts, as well as the edges of the neck-frill, glossy grayish black; upper part of the neck-frill, pale chestnut; fore part of the neck and under parts, lustrous silvery white; upper surface, deep, glossy, blackish brown, with a white band on the wings; bill, dull red at the base; legs, lead colour on the outer side, and on the inside pale yellow.

The young, which was formerly called the Tippet Grebe, from the use to which the silky feathers of the under parts were often applied, has the cheeks and throat white, without any tufts or frill.

The most common Grebe in our island is that elegant tenant of our pools and marshes well known as the DABCHICK; it is the LITTLE GREBE of authors, (Podiceps minor.) In the southern parts of England it is especially abundant; few ponds, the borders of which are thickly covered with beds of reeds, (which afford concealment and a quiet place of nidification,) being without two or three pairs. In their actions and habits they resemble their congeners. Their food consists of aquatic insects and small fishes, in pursuit of which they dive with great celerity. In winter, when the inland waters are frozen, they betake themselves to the mouths of rivers, and to bays and creeks of the sea, where they remain till the weather opens. The nest is usually a floating mass of herbage among the reeds, and often, it is said, on masses of the decayed herbage of the former year; the eggs are

five or six in number, and of a greenish white. When in full plumage, the head, chin, and throat are glossy greenish black; the ear-coverts, sides, and front of the neck, rich chestnut; breast, silvery gray; the flanks are dashed with chestnut; the remainder of the under surface, silvery white; the upper plumage is glossy brownish black, with a white mark on each of the wings. The black head and throat, the chestnut sides of the neck, are characteristic of the summer plumage of the adult. Length, ten inches; the beak is shorter in proportion than in most others of the genus, and is strong and much compressed.

The Divers (Colymbus) closely resemble the grebes in their aquatic habits; they are even more awkward, if possible, on the land; their congenial abode is the ocean, over whose expanse they migrate not on wing, but by means of their powers of swimming; for though their flight is rapid when they have attained a certain elevation, they rise with difficulty.

The Divers inhabit the arctic seas of both worlds, migrating towards the higher latitudes for the purpose of breeding; at such times they leave the sea and retire to fresh water lakes in the interior, where they construct their nest close to the water's edge. On the approach of winter, they again repair to the ocean, and gradually return to their winter haunts. In swimming, the whole of the body is immersed in the water, the head and neck only appearing above the surface; they dive with astonishing vigour, and to a great distance, the wings being used as organs of progression under such circumstance. Fish and aquatic insects form their principal subsistence. They lay but two eggs, and the young do not assume the adult plumage till after the third moult. In their habits the Divers are wild and shy in the extreme, and their notes or screams are loud and melancholy, and well accord with the roar of the wide waste of the Northern Ocean, where they find their home.

Three species are all as yet discovered. They are spread throughout the arctic regions of the northern hemisphere, and only occur accidentally in southern

latitudes. The generic characters are as follow:-Bill, of moderate length, strong, straight, pointed, and compressed; nostril, basal and oblong; legs, placed far behind, the tarsi being compressed; the toes are three before and one behind, the outer toe exceeding the rest in length; the toes before are entirely webbed, the one behind is furnished with a lobe and partly connected with the exterior membrane of the inner toe; nails, flat; tail, merely rudimentary; general plumage, close, thick, and glossy.

The three species known are the Northern Diver, the Black-throated Diver, and the Red-throated Diver; but the young or immature birds of each species have been mistaken as distinct, a circumstance which has led to no little confusion, and a multiplication of names.

The GREAT NORTHERN DIVER, LOON, or IMBER,

(Colymbus glacialis,) is widely distributed over the arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and America. Dr. Rich