n 



28 PODIOEPS OCCIDENTALIS, WESTERN GREBE. 



tbe Podkcps cormitvs, are very common on Pnget Sound. Thoy are 

 rather more rare during the summer months than in the antama and 

 winter. During the latter seasons they may ahnost alvrays be I'ound — 

 two, rarely more, in company — coasting near the shore, diving rapidly in 

 search of food. When desirous of descending beneath the Nvater, they 

 seem to raise themselves partially from the surface, and describing, as 

 the}' descend, almost a perfect arc of a circle. Few birds are more 

 graceful on the water than these interesting species ; and it has aftbrded 

 us many moments of real enjoyment to watch them gliding rapidly and 

 smoothly over its surface, or performing in rapid succession tiieir grace- 

 ful curves as they disappear beneath its surface. They do not often take 

 to wing, relying more on their powers of swimming and diving as a 

 means of escape from enemies ; when they do tly, they rise very awk- 

 wardly from the water, often for a long distance dragging their dangling- 

 legs before they succeed, and often, under such circumstances, abandou- 

 iug the efitbrt, they stop and suddenly disappear beneath tlie surface. 

 They follow up the streams emptying into the Sound for long distances, 

 many of them spending their summer on the lakes far inland, in the 

 neighborhood of which they probably breed with the Large Loon (C 

 torquaiuH). I have often seen large flocks of them on Chiloweyuck Lake 

 from August to September, and perhaps later." 



Tar. CLAHKii: Clarice's Grehe. 



Bill about as loug as the head, shorter than the tarsus, slightly recurved, extremely 

 slender aud acute; the culmeu a little concave, the under outline ahnost one unbroken 

 curve fioni base to tip. 



Adult in breeding plumacje. — Under mandible, and tip and cutting edges of the upper, 

 chrome-yellow, in marked contrast to the black of the culuien. Loral bare strip leaden- 

 blue. Crown, occiput, and hiud neck deep grayish-black ; almost pure black on the 

 hiud head, fading gradually along the neck into the lighter blackisli-gray of the upper 

 parts generally. Lores broadly pure white, as are the eutire under parts, wiih a sbarp 

 line of demarcation along the sides of the head and neck. A decided occipital crest, 

 the feathers about an inch long and quite iiliibrui, but not colored apart from the gen- 

 eral coloration. No decided rutik — no colored ruli's at all ; but the white feathers of 

 the sides of the head behind and across the throat are longer and fuller than else- 

 where — about as in griseif/ena. Wings aud general coloration (except the white lores) 

 exactly as in var. occldentalis. 



Winter dress not materially ditferent from the foregoing. 



Dimeiiaions. — Length, about 22 inches ; extent, 28.50 ; wing, 7 ; bill along culmen, 

 2.30; along gape, 2.7b; height at nostrils, 0.40; tarsus, and middle toe with claw, 

 each, about 2.75. 



With only extremes before us of the two varieties, one might well consider them 

 distinct species ; but other specimens show the intergradatiou. Thus, Nos. 9544 aud 

 9938, especially tlie latter, difl'er from typical dark'i hi stouter and less recurved as 

 well as darker-colored bill, the cuhnen not obviously concave, and the under outline 

 not regularly carved. The loral space has an ashy tinge in the white. The general 

 dimensions are those of clarhii. In size the two varieties inosculate at about two feet 

 of total length. 



In examining moi'e extensive material than I formerly possessed, lack of specific dis- 

 tinction between the two forms becomes still more obvious. Tims v.e frequently find 

 specimens as small as typical clarlii, and with equally slender bill, yet with the color 

 of the bill wholly olivaceous and the lores ashy, as in typical ocvidcntaUs. 



Subgenus Podioeps, Lath. 



CuAR. Bill moderately stout, usually nioi-e or less compressed, equaling or shorter 

 than tlu^ hc.'ul or tarsus. Tarsus obviously shorter than the middle toe and claw. 

 Outer lateral too a little long(!r than the middle. Head in the breeding season with 

 lengthened colored crests or mils, or both. (Including, among North American rei)re- 

 senlatives, Fvdciaiihjiia, Lopludthyia, Dytes, Olodiiles, and rroctopiis.) 



Thus lestrieting I'odiceps to exclude, of American forms, the subgenera JEclunoplwrus 

 and Tdvhiihaptcs, as well as the genus rodihjmhus, we liud that the four North American 

 representatives may be thus analyzed : 



