Grebes SWIxMMING BIEDS. 



Pied-billed Grebe : Podilymhus podiceps. 



Dipper; DabcMck. 



Plate 79. Fig. 2. 



Length : 13 inches. 



Male and Female : Some bristling frontal feathers, but no regular 

 horns. Above dark brown, showy black markings on chin and 

 throat. Breast and lower throat yellowish brown, irregularly 

 spotted and barred, on the upper parts, lower parts glossy 

 white. Wings brown, gray, and white. Bill spotted with blue, 

 white, and dusky, and crossed by a black band, hence Pied- 

 billed. 



Season : Common migrant, on Housatonic River in September and 

 October. 



Breeds : Through range. 



Nesting : Habits similar to the last species. 



Bange : British Provinces, southward to Brazil, Buenos Ayres, and 

 Chili, including the West Indies and the Bermudas. 



The most common Grebe on the eastern coast, and, though, 

 said to breed through its range, is not noted as a resident 

 hereabout. It frequents fresh water, even more freely than 

 salt, and Dr. Langdon gives an interesting account of its 

 inland breeding-habits in his "Summer Birds in an Ohio 

 Marsh " : " The little floating island of decaying vegetation, 

 held together by mud and moss, which constitutes the nest 

 of this species, is a veritable ornithological curiosity. 

 Imagine a ^ pancake ' of what appears to be mud, measuring 

 twelve or fifteen inches in diameter, and rising two or three 

 inches above the water, which may be from one to three feet 

 in depth; anchor it to the bottom with a few concealed 

 blades of * saw grass,' in a little open bay, leaving its cir- 

 cumference entirely free; remove a mass of wet muck from 

 its rounded top, and you expose seven or eight soiled, 

 brownish white eggs, resting in a depression, the bottom of 

 which is less than an inch from the water ; the whole mass 

 is constantly damp. This is the nest of the Dabchick, who 

 is out foraging in the marsh, or, perhaps, is anxiously 

 watching us from some safe corner near by. . . . During 



278 



