LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING 

 BIRDS, ORDER PYGOPODES. 



By Arthur Cleveland Bent, 



of Taunton, Massachusetts. 



Family COLYMBID^. Grebes. 



jIICHMOPHORUS OCCIDENTALIS (Lawrence). 



WESTERN GREBE. 



HABITS. 



Where the sweet waters of Bear Creek empty into Crane Lake 

 the bare shores of a somewhat alkaline lake are transformed into a 

 verdant slough of tall waving bulrushes surrounding a small grassy 

 island overgrown with scattering patches of wild rose bushes, a green 

 oasis of luxuriant vegetation in the waste of bare rolling plains of 

 southwestern Saskatchewan. Here is the gem of all that wonderful 

 bird countr}', the center of abundance of breeding wildfowl ; at least 

 such was the case in 1905 when we found 25 species of water birds 

 nesting in great profusion within an area less than a mile square, 

 as if all had been crowded together in the most favorable locality. 

 On the island we found 61 ducks' nests in a few hours' search, repre- 

 senting 8 species ; and in the slough surrounding it canvasbacks, red- 

 heads, and ruddy ducks were nesting among the bulrushes and cat- 

 tails. Numerous noisy shore birds were flying about, avocets, kill- 

 deers, long-billed curlews, and marbled godwits. Overhead were 

 floating the characteristic gulls of the region, California and ring- 

 billed gulls, common terns, and the beautiful rosy breasted Franklin's 

 gulls. But it was in the slough itself, amid the constant din of 

 countless yellow-headed blackbirds, that we found the subject of this 

 sketch with a few of its lesser brethren, the eared and the horned 

 grebes, seeking seclusion in the winding aisles of water among the 

 tallest bulrushes and cat-tails. I shall never forget the picture, as I 

 stood in water more than waist deep, of one of these beautiful " swan 

 grebes" sailing out from a dense wall of cat-tails, causing scarcely 

 a ripple as it glided along, the body submerged, the long wdiite neck 



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