662 ORNITHOLOGr AND OOLOGY. 



of rank weeds ; the materials of which they were com- 

 posed of the same nature, and rudely interwoven to a 

 height of upwards of seven inches. They were rather 

 more than a foot in diameter at the base ; the cavity only 

 four inches across, shallow, but more finished with finer 

 plants, of which a quantity lay on the borders, and was 

 probably used by the bird to cover the eggs when about to 

 leave them. There were five eggs in one nest, seven in 

 the other. They measured one inch and three-quarters 

 in length by one inch and two and a half eighths. Their 

 shell was smooth, and of a uniform yellowish-cream color, 

 without spots or marks of any kind." 



A single egg in my collection, from Wisconsin, is of an 

 ovoidal form; measures 1.85 by 1.20 inch in dimensions. 

 It is of a dirty-white color, the shell being covered by a 

 calcareous deposit. On scraping this, the shell is of a 

 bluish-white tint. 



PODILYMBUS, Lesson. 



Podilymbus, Lesson, Traite d'Ornith. (1831), 595. (Type Colijnibus podi- 

 ceps, L.) 



Bill shorter than the head, snout much compressed; the culiiien much curved to 

 the tip, which is acute; nostrils situated in the anterior part ot' a broad groove, oval 

 and pervious; wings short, second quill longest, the outer quills einarginate at the 

 end; tail a tuft of downy feathers; tarsi short, and very nmch compressed; anterior 

 toes long, flattened, the outer longest, and broadly margined, the inner sides the 

 most, hind toe short and moderately lobed; claws small, depressed, oblong, and 

 obtuse 



PODILYMBUS PODICEPS.— Zau>rence. 



The Pied-bill Grebe. 



Colymbus pocUceps, Linnneus. S. N. (1766), 223. 



.Podiceps Carolinensis, Nuttall. Man., IL (1834) 259. Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 

 359; V. (1839) 624. Jb., Birds Am., VIL (1844) 324. 



Description. 

 Adult. — Upper plumage very dark brown; primaries dark-ash; secondaries ash 

 on the outer webs, and white on the inner; bill pale-blue, dusky on the ridge of the 

 upper mandible, both mandibles crossed with a broad black band, including the nos- 

 trils; chin and throat marked with a conspicuous black patch nearly two inches in 

 extent ; cheeks and sides of the neck brownish-gray ; lower part of the neck, upper 



