8 GREBES 



been comparatively safe from enemies, and year after year have 

 gone south when the lakes froze over and come back again with the 

 warm spring days. 



But this life of primitive security was rudely broken into when 

 their beautiful silvery breasts and rich brown sides attracted the 

 attention of the plume hunters, and within five or six years the 

 demand for their skins for hats, muffs, and capes has grown so 

 great as to threaten the species, and with it several other species of 

 grebes, with extermination. Hunters go to the breeding-grounds 

 and shoot the old birds when bold in defense of their eggs and 

 young, stripping off their skins and shipping them in thousands to 

 the cities. Unless some wise law intervenes, these harmless, beauti- 

 ful spirits of the lake will soon have disappeared from the face of 

 the earth. Vernon Bailey. 



Subgenus Podiceps. 



5. Colymbus dominieus brachypterus Chapm. Least Gkebe, 



A tiny dusky grebe, about half as big as the dabchick ; bill black, tipped 



with whitish. Adults : top of head 

 and back dull greenish black ; chin and 

 throat blackish ; sides of neck and head 

 plumbeous ; breast mottled silvery 

 gray. Wing: 3.80, bill .82. 



Distribution. — From Panama north 

 to southern Texas and Lower California. 



Nest. — On water, floating among the rushes. Eggs : usually 7. 



These tiny grebes are as common in the ponds of southern Texas 

 as the dabchick in the north. In open water they bob on the little 

 waves, and in quiet pools where the willows overhang the banks 

 swim and dive among the sedges and pink water-lilies. When not 

 seeking food below the surface of the water, they usually keep 

 close to some cover, and in the middle of the day if not hidden in 

 the sedges are found sitting close under the shore grass, or in the 

 shade of a bush or low-hanging tree. Vernon Bailey. 



GENTTS PODHjYMBUS. 



6. Podilymbus podiceps (Linn.). Pied-billed Grebe : Dabchick. 

 Bill short and stout, head not crested. Breeding plumage : bill whitish, 



crossed by a black band ; upper parts 

 blackish ; chin and throat black ; 

 breast mottled silvery gray. Winter 

 plumage : bill brownish, with paler 



lower mandible ; chin, throat, and 



Yi„ 23. breast whitish. Young : head and 



neck more or less striped with brown, 

 black, and white. Length : 12-15, wing 4.50-5.00, bill about .87. 



Distribution. — North and South America, except extreme northern and 

 southern parts, breeding throughout most of its range. 



