BIRDS OF KANSAS. 9 



and early spring of 1882, I had a good opportunity to observe 

 them on the waters of Paget Sound. The birds ride the water 

 lightly, and their silky plumage, slender bill, long, waving neck 

 and graceful carriage can but attract the attention of the most 

 indifferent of observers. It ranks high among the water birds, 

 and is by right the queen of the family. Like all of the race, 

 they are expert swimmers and divers, and can quietly sink out of 

 sight in the water without any apparent motion; but their natural 

 manner of diving is to spring with a stroke of their feet, almost 

 clearing the water and disappearing about three feet from the 

 starting point. They are at home on the waves, and it is almost 

 impossible to force the birds to take wing; but when in the air 

 fly with great rapidity, with neck and feet stretched out to their 

 full extent, and in alighting often do not attempt to slacken 

 their speed, but strike the water with partially closed wings, 

 with a force that carries them on the surface from twenty to 

 forty feet. 



Their nests are usually built on broken down reeds or rushes 

 growing in the water from two to three feet deep, and made of 

 decayed vegetation brought up from the bottom. Eggs two to 

 five; dull bluish white. A set of four eggs collected at Devil's 

 Lake, Dakota, June 1st, 1884:, measure: 2.20x1.47, 2.26x1.47, 

 2.30x1.49, 2.32x1.50; in form, vary from elliptical ovate to 

 enlongate ovate. 



Two sets of eggs, one of four, the other of five, taken by 

 Capt. Chas. Bendire, May 28th, 1883, on a marsh in Klamath 

 county, Oregon, average 2.31x1.52. He writes that they often 

 lay seven eggs, and possibly more. 



Genus COLYMBUS Linn.eus. 



"Neck much shorter than the hody; bill about equal to the head, stout (length 

 of the culmen about three and a half times the depth through the base), the tiji 

 bluut, and the outlines more or less convex; tarsus shorter than middle toe witli 

 claw. Breeding plumage ornamented by colored tufts or patches about the 

 head, the winter plumage and the young very different." 



Subgenus DYTES Kaup. 



"Size small; bill much shorter than head, compressed deeper than wide at 

 base; tarsus about as long as the middle toe witliout the claw." 



