PODICEPS.
Plumage soft and silky, tail feathers soft and difficult to tell from surrounding feathers; toes lobed and united at base by web. Divers; feeding on fish, frogs, insects, etc.; nest large, of aquatic plants and usually floating among reeds; eggs white, soon much nest-stained, inner layer of shell green.
Podiceps cristatus cristatus (L.). GREAT CRESTED GREBE. Fr. Grebe huppe ; Ger. Grosser Steissfuss ; Ital. Svasso maggiore ; Swed. Skagg-Dopping.
e ? summer. Above dark brown ; carpal coverts, secondaries, and some scapulars as well as underparts white ; crown and occipital tufts black ; lores, supercilium, face, and throat white ; ear coverts and tippet cinnamon merging into black. In winter :
above brown, lores white, underparts white. Iris red with inner yellow ring. Bill dark brown, reddish along sides and at base below. Legs and feet greenish externally, greenish yellow on inner side. Wing 168-195. Tarsus Bill Breeds.—British Isles ; Continental Europe from S. Sweden, S. Finland, and Russia south of L. Onega, south to Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Caucasus ; Sicily, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco ; and widely in Asia. Northern birds migrate, but many winter in Britain. Chief winter quarters are the Mediterranean Basin and S. Asia.
Podiceps griseigena griseigena, (Boddaert). RED