Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/193

 GKEBE GEEECE 185 lack ; cheeks, throat, band before eye, hume- ral feathers, and secondaries white ; fore part and sides of neck reddish brown; rest of under parts silvery white; primaries dark brown ; iris bright carmine ; in the females young the crest is very slight, and the up- Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus). per parts are tinged with gray. It is found along the Atlantic coast from the fur countries, where it breeds, southward, and as far as Tex- as in the winter, and also on the Pacific shore. All the species have the head rather small, the eyes near the bill, the neck long and slender, and the body flattened ; the plumage is thick and soft, and silky on the under surface. The red-necked grebe (P. griseigena, Gray), 18 in. long, is found from the fur countries as far south as Pennsylvania in the winter; it is a stouter bird, with shorter neck and smaller crest and ruff, than the preceding species. The largest known species is the western grebe (P. occidentalis^ Lawrence), 29 in. long, with an extent of wings of 3 ft. ; it inhabits the Pa- cific coast from Washington territory to Cali- fornia. The horned grebe (P. comutus, Lath.) is about 14 in. long ; the sides of the head are tufted, and of a yellowish red color ; the feath- ers of the upper parts are margined with gray ; throat glossy black; fore neck and upper breast chestnut red ; lower parts shining white. It is very generally distributed over North America ; it is known to gunners as the " hell diver," from its activity in diving ; like that of all the grebes, the flesh has a strong fishy fla- vor, and is rarely eaten except by the north- west Indians, who also make under garments of the soft plumage of the lower parts. In the genus podilymbus the bill is shorter than the head, strong, with the culmen much arched to the tip, which is hooked over the lower man- dible; there are no ornamental ruffs. Only two species are described, one in North and the other in South America, generally distrib- uted over the temperate regions, preferring fresh water. The pied-bill grebe, or dobchick (P. podicepSj Lawr. ; P. Carolinensis, Lath.), is 14 in. long, with a pale blue bill crossed by a black band ; the upper plumage very dark brown; chin and throat with a black patch; cheeks, sides of neck, and abdomen grayish white; upper breast and sides rusty brown; the female has not the black patches. GREECE, a country of southeastern Europe, occupying the central and southern portions of the large and irregular peninsula which extends into the Mediterranean between the Ionian and the ./Egean seas. By its own in- habitants, both in ancient and modern times, the country has been called Hellas; but the early population of Italy, gaining their first knowledge of the region from the Grseci (Tpai- /cot), one of its northern tribes, formed from this tribal designation a name for the entire country (Gratia). From this have been de- rived the names given to it in most of the European languages (Fr. la Grece, Ger. Grie- chenland, Ital. Grecia, &c.). In treating of the political and physical geography of Greece, we shall devote the first portion of this article to the description of the ancient country, reserv- ing for a subsequent division an account of the modern kingdom. Many difficulties attend the definition of the northern limits of ancient Greece, the amount of territory included in the possessions of the country varying greatly at different periods. Considering Greece prop- er as excluding Macedonia, Illyria, and Thrace, but including Thessaly and the greater part of Epirus, it began about lat. 40 IT., where a natural boundary was formed by a chain of mountains extending from the Thermaic gulf on the east, and terminating in the^Lcroce- raunian promontory, on the Adriatic, on the west. From this boundary the peninsula of Greece extends southward to lat. 36 23'. Its greatest length, exclusive of the Acroceraunian projection, from Mt. Olympus in the northeast to Cape Taenarum at the southern extremity, is about 250 m. ; its greatest width, from the "W. coast of ancient Acarnania to Marathon, K E. of Athens, is about 165 m. The area of the ancient country, excluding Epirus, but including the island of Eubcsa, was about 21,- 000 sq. m. The mainland of Greece, deeply indented at several points by gulfs and almost landlocked bays, and crossed by mountain ranges, is naturally divided into three princi- pal regions, northern and central Greece and the Peloponnesus. Northern Greece, extend- ing from the K boundary to the point where the peninsula is narrowed by the opposite Am- bracian and Maliac gulfs, included Epirus and Thessaly, regions nearly equal in size. Cen- tral Greece, that part extending from this point to the narrow isthmus of Corinth, comprised the divisions of Acarnania (at the western ex- tremity), ^Etolia (the next division toward the east), Ozolian Locris, Phocis, and Boeotia, these three bordering on the gulf of Corinth ; Epic- nemidian and Opuntian Locris and Doris to