82 NEBRASKA ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION 



was built upon a platform of broken-down rushes in water about two 

 feet deej}. The nest was constructed of the ends of bitten and broken- 

 oif rushes, and although the nest was quite deep, the base was about 

 four inches from the water and dry. It contained seven eggs of the 

 usual color. All of the fifty or more Coot's nests that I found were in 

 aLout the same kind of a location, mostly, however, farther from the 

 shore; were constructed of the sanae kind of rushes, and high and dry 

 out of the water. The egga varied in number from one to eleven, and 

 izi incubation from fresh to almost hatched. I did not see any young 

 Coots. 



The Pied-billed and Eared Crebes are also common breeders, the for- 

 mer the more abundant. Neither were breeding in colonies, the nests 

 being- widely separated. The}' were built upon floating' platforms of 

 rushes in the more open water and anchored to the living rushes. 

 Nearly all of the nests of the Pied-billed Grebe that I found were so 

 low down that the eggs were in water. Incubation was quite far 

 advanced. The largest set taken was eight, the smallest, four. A young 

 Pied-billed Grebe that I caught and now have mounted could not have 

 been more than a few hours old; it was, when caught, at quite a dis- 

 tance from any nest, and I saw nothing of the parent birds. It is cov- 

 ered with soft down, in color uniform black, the breast, belly and chin 

 whitish; along- the body there are several stripes of whitish; also one 

 through either ej'e and one over the eyes coming together at the base 

 of the upper mandible. Near the base of the skull at the back of the 

 head is a small patch of brown. The bill is large and shaped as in the 

 old bird; the wing very small and weak; the feet large and strong, Avith 

 serrulations as in the old bird. The Horned Grebe in this lake as a rule 

 built higher out of the Avater but the nest does not difEer materially 

 from that of the Pied-billed Grebe. All the nests that I found of both 

 birds had the eggs covered with wet rushes. Although I waited patiently 

 for several hours I did not see the birds go to or from their nests. 



The Forster's and Black Terns were common, there being aboiit sixty 

 pairs of the former and twenty of the latter around the one lake. The 

 birds were gathered in a colony on the north side of the lake where 

 the nests were placed on masses of rushes; the Forster's having taken 

 ' the higher and more desirable spots, the Black being compelled, as the 

 space was limited, to occupy the less desirable, where the eggs were 

 frequently in water. In some cases quite a nest was built of rush stems 

 and leaves, in others the cavity was shajjed in the top of the floating 

 mass of rushes. One set of four of the Forster's was taken, the number, 

 however, usually being two or three. Incubation was well advanced, 

 young birds being numerous; these were thickly covered with long 

 down. The back irregularly marked with brown and black. The lower 

 parts light brown. The wings, in marked contrast to those of the yoimg 

 Grebe, are long and strong. I found on putting a bird just out of the 

 egg in the water that it at once began to swim. The Black Terns were 



