LIFE HISTOEIES OF NOETH AMERICAN DIVING BIEDS. 27 



rives October 1 to 15, departs November 25. Iowa : November 11 

 (latest). Kansas: September. Northern Alaska: Norton Sound, 

 leave the middle of October. Southeastern Alaska : Valdez Narrows, 

 September 18; Admiralty Island, September 24. Mackenzie: Mac- 

 kenzie River, October 8. Yukon Territory: Forty Mile, September 

 20 ; Teslin Lake, October 17. Washington : Blaine, October. Oregon : 

 Netarts Baj', September 9. Idaho: Saw-tooth Lake, September 25 

 to October 4. California : Mono Lake, September 2 to 21 ; San 

 Benito County, October 14. 



Casual records. — Has been recorded from Greenland, Herschel 

 Island River, Yukon Territory, the Bermuda Islands, and the Com- 

 mander Islands. 



Egg dates. — North Dakota: 14 records, April 6 to July 7; 8 

 records, June 4 to 25. Manitoba and Saskatchewan: 11 records, May 

 31 to July 7 ; 6 records, June 3 to 10. Alberta and British Columbia : 

 9 records. May 20 to July 7; 5 records, June 4 to 17. Ontario and 

 Quebec: 9 records. May 28 to June 27; 5 records, June 4 to 21. 

 Nebraska : 2 records, June 29 and August 12. 



COLYMBUS NIGRICOLLIS CALIFORNICUS (Heeimann). 



AMERICAN EARED GREBE. 



HABITS. 



The little eared gi'ebe is widely and evenly distributed throughout 

 western North America; from the Great Plains west to the Pacific 

 coast and in most of the inland marshy lakes it is an abundant spe- 

 cies. It seems to me that the name American should be retained, as 

 our bird is well established as, at least subspecifically, distinct from 

 the European eared grebe. 



Courtship. — During the spring migration in May the birds are 

 busy with their courtships. Mr. Aretas A. Saunders writes to me 

 that all the birds he saw on the spring migration in Montana were 

 in pairs and that they are evidently mated when they arrive on their 

 breeding grounds. Mr. W. L. Dawson (1909) has gracefully de- 

 scribed their activity at this season as follows : 



It has been a blazing day, for June, even in the Big Bend country, but now 

 the sun has sunk behind the Cascades and the earth has already begun to 

 exhale the fresh odors of recovering darkness. Most birds have properly 

 tucked head under wing, and even the nighthawks are less feverish in their 

 exertions ; but not so with the eared grebes. It is the magic hour of courtship, 

 and near and far from the open water or its weedy margins sounds the mellow 

 poo-eep poo-eep of these idyllic swains. The sound is given deliberately with a 

 gently rising inflection, but seems to vanish into silence at the end with a sort 

 of saber-like flourish. Now and again some Romeo, more ardent than his 

 mates, bursts into an excited hicko rick up, liicko rick up, hicko rick up. The 



