BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 7 



*** The earliest record I have of its arrival in spring is 

 April 23d, but reliable observers give a much earlier date. 

 The nesting is begun by the 20th of May. The structures are 

 quite bulky, and consist of old reeds principally, placed on a 

 tussock of the same material and rudely embracing surround- 

 ing erect stalks. Not infrequently they are entirely sur- 

 rounded with water, but more often on the wet land a few feet 

 from the shores of a slough. The excavation is exceedingly 

 superficial, but contains from 7 to 10 eggs, originally grayish 

 or yellowish white, that soon become very much soiled by the 

 rotten reeds and filthy feet of the denizen. The young take 

 to the water at once. The fact that they have been seen swimming 

 with the parent as early as the first week in May, and at the 

 tenderest age as late as the 3rd of August, suggests more than 

 one brood in a season. I have no conclusive evidence that they 

 do not breed twice. They linger quite late in the autumn, but 

 are so infrequently observed that the proximate date of their 

 migration southward is still unknown to me. 



Like the other species of the genus, they have the faculty of 

 depressing their bodies below the surface of the water in which 

 they are swimming, at will, in the presence of danger. A good 

 field glass will find at such times only the bill and eyes above 

 the water. 



*Birds of the N. W., p. T32. 



**Edward Everett. Notes from Waseca. 



***Correspondence of Mr. L. Froman. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS 



Upper part of head, cheeks, throat and ruff, glossy black; a 

 broad band from the bill over the eye, and the elongated oc- 

 cipital tufts behind them, yellowish-red. color deepest next the 

 bill; upper surface brownish-black, each feather margined with 

 gray; primaries brownish- ash. secondaries mostly white, some 

 of the outer ones dark ash; fore neck and upper jDart of breast 

 bright chestnut-red, sides of the same color, mixed with dusky; 

 abdomen silky white; bill bluish black, yellow at the tip; loral 

 space bright carmine; iris carmine, with an inner circle of 

 white; tarsi and feet dusky gray externally, dull yellow inter- 

 nally, and on both edges of the tarsus. 



Length. 14; wing, 6; bill, 1; tarsi, 2. 



Habitat, Northern America. 



The foregoing is the descriptioD of the vernal plumage, the 

 autumnal being much less striking. In the former they are 

 sometimes found in considerable flocks, disporting themselves 

 in the bays of our lakes and in the streams which supply 

 them. Their smooth, rapid natation and wholesale diving 

 at such times is marvelous and eminently characteristic. 



2z 



