2 BIRDS OF AMERICA 



extreme posterior position of the legs causes the birds to sit up hke Penguins. On land they 

 sometimes progress on their bellies after the manner of seals. In flight the feet are extended 

 backward and serve as a rudder, as the tail would in another bird. 



A dense, matted, raft-like structure, made of rushes and the like, and often floating, 

 but usually anchored to some aquatic plant, forms the nest of these strange birds. On this 

 platform are laid from two to nine eggs of dull white or greenish-white. The nest is always 

 damp and the eggs sometimes are hatched when they actually are partly covered with water. 

 " When out of the shell," says one observer, " the young has not far to walk; he looks for 

 a few moments over the edge of his water-drenched cradle and down he goes with the expert- 

 ness of an old diver." Grebes usually are gregarious. When incubation of the full number 

 of eggs has actually begun, the sitting bird upon leaving the nest (unless she is frightened 

 away) completely conceals the eggs with moss and rushes. 



Few birds have suffered more from the millinery trade than have the Grebes, whose 

 dense and beautiful breast plumage has been much used for decorating hats. Legislation 

 of various kinds curbs this barbaric practice in many parts of the country. 



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Photo by W . L. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 



WESTERN GREBE 



The most remarkable point about the food habits of Grebes is that the stomachs almost 

 invariably contain a considerable mass of feathers. Feathers are fed to the young, and 

 there is no question that they play some essential though unknown part in the digestive 

 economy. As they are finely ground in the gizzards it is probable that finally they are 

 digested and the available nutriment assimilated. Feathers constituted practically 66 per 

 cent, of the contents of the 57 Horned Grebe's stomachs examined. However, it is not likely 

 that they furnish a very large percentage of the nourishment needed by the birds. As the 

 nutritive value of the feathers is unknown, this part of the stomach contents is ignored. The 

 other items of food are assigned 100 per cent., and the percentages are given on that basis. 

 Various beetles, chiefly aquatic, compose 23.3 per cent, of the food; other insects (including 

 aquatic bugs, caddis and chironomid larvse, dragon-fly nymphs, etc.), nearly 12 per cent.; 

 fishes, 27.8 per cent.; crawfish 20.7 per cent.; and other Crustacea 13.8 per cent. A little 

 other animal matter is taken, including snails and spiders, and a small quantity of vege- 

 table food was found in two stomachs. 



