BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 87 



3. Podilymbus podiceps (Linn.). 

 Pied-billed Grebe. Dipper. 



Transient visitor, common in autumn ; formerly found breeding in one locality. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



March 22, 1894, two seen, Great Meadow, W. Faxon. 



April 6 — November 10. 

 November 22, 1897, one seen. Fresh Pond, O. A. Lothrop. 



NESTING DATES. 



April 23 — 30. 



On June 13, 1891, Mr. Walter Faxon found a number of Pied-billed Grebes 

 breeding at Great Meadow. There can be little doubt that they had been 

 established there for some time previous to this, for the shallow, brush-grown 

 reservoir which they inhabited had then been in existence for nearly twenty 

 years. On the occasion just mentioned, Mr. Faxon saw or heard at least six 

 or eight different birds, one of which was accompanied by chicks only a few 

 days old, and on April 27, 1892, he discovered a nest containing five fresh 



eggs. 



During the following eight years Great Meadow was frequently visited by 

 our local ornithologists, and the manners and customs of the Grebes were closely 

 studied. One or two birds often appeared in the pond as soon as it was free 

 from ice — this sometimes happening before the close of March — and by the 

 middle of April the full colony was usually re-established. It was difficult to 

 judge as to how many members it contained, for they were given to haunting 

 the flooded thickets, and we seldom saw more than three or four of them on 

 any one occasion ; but at times, especially in the early morning and late after- 

 noon when the weather was clear and calm, their loud cuckoo-like calls and odd 

 whinnying outcries would come in quick succession from so many different parts 

 of the pond that one might have thought there were scores of birds. Probably 

 the total number of pairs did not ever exceed a dozen, while during some 

 seasons there were apparently not more than five or six. They built their 

 interesting floating nests in water a foot or more in depth, anchoring them to 

 the stems of the sweet gale and button bushes, and laying from five to eight 

 eggs which usually were covered by the bird whenever she left them. Although 

 a few sets of eggs were taken by collectors, the Grebes reared a fair number 



