BIRDS OF KANSAS. 17 



carmine; legs and feet livid grayish blue, tlieir inner sides tinged with pale 

 yellowish flesh color; claws black, lighter at the base; webs brownish black- 

 lighter ill the middle. Young: Upper parts dusky, the scapulars, interscapu, 

 lars and upper tail coverts bordered terminally with plumbeous gray; lower 

 parts, including malar region, cliin, throat and fore neck, white, the sides and 

 flanks dusky brown, squamaled with grayish. Bill pale yellowish green, the 

 ridge and tip of upper mandible dusky; iris brown; feet dusky externally, pale 

 yellowish flesh color internally, webs dusky, but yellow in the middle. Downy 

 young: Uniformly dark fuliginous, lighter and more slaty on the throat, fore 

 neck, jugulum and sides, the entire abdomen velvety yellowish white, shaded 

 with pale ash gray exteriorly. The down short and very dense, very similar 

 to the fur of an otter or other fur-bearing mammal." 



During the summer months the birds are to be found in the 

 northern ponds and lakes, sporting and fishing in the open clear 

 waters; and their plaintive call can often be heard far beyond 

 the range of our sight: a weird sound, more supernatural than 

 real; one that the imaginative mind could well be led to think 

 a wail from Nereus, who was doomed by Poseidon, the god of 

 the sea, to dwell in the waters. 



The birds reluctantly leave their northern home, and as a 

 rule linger until the ice closes their watery resorts, wintering 

 largely upon the sea coast. I found them very common during 

 the winter months in the harbor of San Diego; and have often 

 laid upon the railroad track at its crossing of a narrow outlet to 

 a small pond, a little south of the city, and watched the birds 

 pass and repass, invariably coming and going with the tide. 

 As they approached the outlet from either side, they would dive 

 at a safe distance and with the aid of their wings fly bene;ith its 

 surface with the speed of an arrow: making tlie water fairly 

 boil around them, and leaving in their wake a silvery streak of 

 bubbles. And once, when upon their breeding grounds in com- 

 pany with my brother, in trying to catch two little chicks not 

 over a week old, the mother passed under our boat several 

 times, in like manner. 



It is a difficult matter to force the birds to take wing, and, 

 without a fair breeze to aid them, I never saw one make the 



