Suminer Birds of a Northern Ohio JIarsh. 231 



The 3'oiing removed from these eggs presented slight, but constant 

 differences in the head and neck-markings, and the size of the bill, as 

 compared with the 3'oung of P.j^odiceps, obtained in the same manner, 

 those supposed to be P. cornutus being smaller, with more slender 

 bills, less blotching about the head and neck, and none in the median 

 line of throat. 



Mr. Porter has repeatedly taken similar eggs, two in a set, during 

 the past four or five years, but owing to the absence of the parent bird 

 during the da3', and its sh^-ness at night, has been unable to identify it. 



95. PoDiLYMBDS PODiCEPS, Lawrcucc. — Pied-hilled Grebe; Water 

 Witch; Dabchick. — As more or less doubt appears to prevail in regard 

 to the building of floating nests b}' members of the Grebe familv, I de- 

 sire here to testify to the fact that the nest of the present species does 

 float, notwithstanding the skeptical '''it is said'''' of Dr. Coues, in his 

 remarks on the nidification of the family.* 



The little floating island of deca^^ing vegetation held together by 

 mud and moss, which constitutes the nest of this species, is a veritable 

 ornithological curiosit}^ Imagine a ''pancake" of what appears to be 

 mud, measuring twelve or fifteen inches in diameter, and rising two or 

 three inches above the water, wdiich ma}^ be from one to three feet in 

 depth; anchor it to the bottom with a few concealed blades of "saw- 

 grass," in a little open bay, leaving its circumference entirely free; re- 

 move a mass of wet muck from its rounded top and you expose seven 

 or eight soiled brownish-white eggs, resting in a depression the bottom 

 of which is less than an inch from the water; the whole mass is con- 

 stantl}' damp. This is the nest of the Dabchick, who is out foraging 

 in the marsh, or perhaps is anxiously watching us from some safe 

 cover near by. 



The anchoring -blades of coarse saw-grass or flags, being always 

 longer than is necessary to reach the bottom, permit of considerable 

 lateral and vertical movement of the nest, and so eflTectually provide 

 against drowning of the eggs by any ordinary rise in the water-level 

 such as frequentl}^ occurs during the prevalance of strong easterly 

 winds on the lake. A small bunch of saw-grass alread}^ growing in a 

 suitable situation is evidently selected as a nucleus for the nest, and 

 the tops bent so as to form part of it. 



During the day we invariablj' found the eggs concealed b}^ a cover- 

 ing of muck as above described, but, as we ascertained by repeated 



* " The Best is formed of matted vegetation, close to the water, or even, it is said, float- 

 ing amongst aquatic plants." (Key to North American Birds, p. 335.) 



