Page:The Bird Book.djvu/15

DIVING BIRDS 3. HORNED GREBE. Colymbus auritus.

Range.—The whole of North America, breeding in the interior from North Dakota northwest; winters along the Gulf Coast. This species is one of the most beautiful of the Grebes, having in the breeding season buffy ear tufts, black cheeks and throat, and chestnut neck, breast and sides. They breed abundantly in the marshy flats of North Dakota and the interior of Canada.

Buffy white, nest stained

They build a typical Grebe's nest, a floating mass of decayed matter which stains the naturally white eggs to a dirty brown. The number of eggs varies from three to seven. Size 1.70 x 1.15. Data.—Devils Lake, N. Dakota, June 20, 1900. 6 eggs much stained. Nest floating in 4 ft. of water, a large mass of rotten rushes and weeds. Collector. James Smalley.

<k EARED GREBE. Colymbus nigricollis.

californicus.

Range. North America west of the Mississip- pi, breeding from Texas to Manitoba and winter- ing along the Pacific Coast of the United States and from Texas southward.

Eared Grebes differ from the preceding in hay- ing the entire neck blackish. They nest very abundantly throughout the west, in favorable lo- calities, from Texas to Minnesota and Dakota. Their nests are constructed in the same man- ner as the preceding varieties and are located in similar localities. As do all the Grebes when leaving the nest, they cover the eggs with the damp rushes from

.,,, around the base of the nest. This is prob- ,.-, ably for the purpose of assisting incuba-

tion during their absence, by the action "of

. the sun's rays on the wet mass. As they

.are nearly always thus covered upon the approach of anyone, this may be done also as a protection from discovery. They lay from three to eight bluish white eggs with the, usual chalky and discolored appear- ance. The breeding season is at its height early in June, or earlier, in the southern portion of its range. Size 1.75 x 1.20. Data. Artesian, S. Dakota, June 21, 1899. Nest of rushes, floating in three feet of water. Large colony in a small lake. Collector, F. A. Patton.

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Horned Grebe

Eared Grebe

Bluish white, stained