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HORNED GREBE. 



SPIRIT DUCK. HELL DIVER. DUSKY GREBE. 

 COLYMBUS AURITUS. 



Char. Upper parts dull brown, the feathers paler on the edges ; head 

 darker ; breast rufous ; wings varied with white ; lower parts silvery 

 white. Length about 14 inches. In the mating season the sides of the 

 head are adorned with crests (horns) of short feathers of black color. 



Nest. Amid the rank herbage on reedy margin of a lake, — usually 

 fastened to rushes and floating on the surface of shallow water ; a mass 

 of dried stems of rushes and coarse sedges. 



Eggs. 2-7 (usually 4) ; bluish white, stained with brown ; 1.80 X 1.20. 



The Horned Grebe is an inhabitant of the northern regions 

 of both continents, being very common in the summer season 

 throughout the Hudson Bay fur countries, frequenting almost 

 every lake with grassy borders, in which seclusion, about the 

 month of June, it constructs its nest of coarse herbage, which, 

 left afloat, is sometimes moored to the surrounding reeds and 

 rushes. The eggs are white, spotted, and, as it were, soiled 

 with brown ; in order to hide them from its enemies, it has 

 the habit of covering them while abroad. In the autumn these 

 birds retire to the South, appearing in Massachusetts, some- 



