1056 



SYSTEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — PYGOPODES — PODICIPEDES. 



Minnesota, etc., but chiefly N. of the U. S. Specimens more like typical griseigena from the 

 Northwest coast. Eggs 2-5, sometimes more, oftener 3 or 4, 2.10-2.35 X 1.25-1.45, rough 

 whitish, either inclining to pale greenish or M'ith huffy discoloration, of the narrow-elongate 

 shape usual in this family. Podiceps ruhricollis and P. griseigena of American authors. P. 

 cooperi Lawr. 1858; Coues, 1862. P. holbosUH Reinh. 1853, Greenland. P. (Pedetaithga) 

 holhblli Coues, 1862, N. Am. generally. P. affinis Salvad. 1866. P. griseigena var. holbollii 

 of Key, 1st ed. 1872, p. 3.37. Podicipes griseigena holboelli of Key, 2d-4th eds. 1884-90, 

 p. 794. Cohjmhis holboellii A. 0. U. Lists, 1880-95, No. 2. 



(Subgenus Dytes.) 



C. (D.) auri'tus. (Lat. auritus, eared. Figs. 713, 714.) Horned Grebe. Sclavonian 

 Grebe. Adult ^ 9 j breeding plumage : Bill black, tipped with yellow ; feet dusky exter- 

 nally, internally yellowish; iris carmine, with a fine white ring. A brownish-yellow stripe 

 over eye, widening behind, deepening in color at the ends of long crests, dark chestnut be- 

 tween eye and bill. Crown, chin, and very full ruff glossy greenish-black. Upper parts 

 brownish-black, with paler edges of the feathers. Primaries light chocolate-brown, with black 

 shafts, except at base ; secondaries white. Neck all round except stripe down behind, and 



sides of the body, rich dark brownish-red or purplish wine- 

 red, mixed with dusky on flanks ; other under parts pure 

 silky-white. Winter adults, and young : Bill dusky, much 

 of under mandible bluish- or yellowish -white. Indications 

 of crests and ruff in length and fulness of feathei's of the parts. 

 Crown and neck behind, and sides of body, sooty-blackish ; 

 other upper parts, and wings, as in the adult in summer. 

 Chin, throat, and sides of head pure white, this color nearly 

 encircling nape ; neck in front and lower belly lightly washed 

 with ashy-gray ; other under parts as before. Newly-fledged 

 young curiously stripetl on the head with rufous, dusky, and 

 wiiite; downy young gray above, darker on crown, streaked 

 and spotted with dusky on sides of head and throat. Length 

 about 14.00; extent 24.00; wing 5.75; tarsus 1.75; middle 

 toe and claw 2.10; culinen 0.90; gape 1.30; height of bill 

 at nostrils 0.30, width there 0.25. Bill thus compressed 

 higher than wide at base, tapering, with considerably curved 

 culmen — quite different from the depressed bill wider than high at base with straight tip and 

 ascending gonys, of nigricollis or californicus ; it varies much in size, even among equally 

 adult examples ; in young it is always smaller and weaker than in old birds. Black, yellow- 

 tipped in the old, we find it variously lighter in the young — usually dusky on ridge, elsewhere 

 tinged with olivaceous, yellowish, or even orange, or extensively bluish-white. In breeding 

 plumage this Grebe is conspicuously different from any other, " the head being surrounded, as 

 it were, by a nimbus or aureole, such as that with which painters adorn saintly characters," 

 as Newton says ; but the young are much like those of the next species, requiring careful dis- 

 crin)ination. Europe ; Asia ; North America at large, abundant, and generally diffused in 

 migration ; breeds in portions of the northern U. S. but mainly farther north. Eggs laid on 

 soaking or floating beds of decayed reeds, to the number of about 5 usually, sometimes more, 

 white or slightly shaded, elliptical, 1.70 X 1.20. Cohjmbus auritus Linn. 1758, in part; 

 A. O. U. Lists, 1886-95, No. 3 — a name which has oftenest been applied to the Black-necked 

 Grebe, but is now restricted to the present species. C cornntus Gm. 1788. Podiceps cornutus 

 Lath. 1790, and of most authors, as of the Key, original edition, 1872, p. 337; Podicipes 



m^ 



Fig. 713. — Horned Grebe, Left 

 Foot. (L. A. Fuertes.) 



