46 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



PIED-BILLED GREBE (Podilymbus podiceps) . 

 Common or local names: Dipper; Didapper; Dabchick; Hell-diver; Water-witch. 



Adult in Summer. 



Length. — Varying from 12 to 15 inches. 



Adult in Summer. — Above mainly dark grayish brown or brownish black; 

 chin and middle of throat black; sides of head and neck gray; fore 

 neck and breast brownish gray; belly silvery ash; iris brown and white; 

 eyelids white; bill very pale bluish, crossed near the middle by a black 

 band; feet greenish black outside, leaden gray inside. 



Adult and Young in Winter. — • Upper parts sooty brownish; throat whitish, 

 with no black patch; fore neck, breast and sides brown; rest of under 

 parts silvery whitish; bill dusky yellowish, without band. Young 

 have head streaked with whitish and throat with brownish. 



Field Marks. — This bird has a more brownish cast than our other Grebes; 

 the brownish upper breast distinguishes it from the Horned Grebe, 

 but the best mark is the short and thick bill. In the breeding season 

 the black throat patch and band on the bill are noticeable. This bird 

 lacks the shining white cheeks peculiar to the Horned Grebe in winter. 



Notes. — Somewhat like those of a cuckoo. A loud, sonorous coic-cow-coic- 

 cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-cow-uh, cow-uh, coio-uh, cow-uh (Chapman). 



Nest. — A ma.ss of stalks, etc., sometimes floating, and attached to sur- 

 rounding reeds. 



