British Sea Birds

by Charles Dixon

BLACK-NECKED GREBE.

This bird, the Podicipes nigricollis of systematists, is so rarely met with in the British area, that it scarcely requires more than a passing allusion. Examples occasionally occur on our eastern and southern coasts especially, but the bird is too rare to form any feature in the ornithology of the British seaboard. It may be readily distinguished from the other European Grebes by its decidedly up-curved bill, and by the large amount of white on the primaries and secondaries. In the nuptial plumage the head and neck are black. In its habits generally it differs little from the other species.