-40 EEPORT OF XEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



6 Tachybaptus podiceps (Linnaeus). 

 Pied-billed Grebe. 



PLATE 3. 



Adults in spring and summer. — Length, 12-15. Wing, 4.50-5. Above, brown- 

 ish black ; silvery white below; indistinctly spotted with dusky and overlaid 

 with buff tips ; throat, black ; bill, white, crossed by a black band. In winter. — 

 Feathers tipped witii buff. 



Young in autumn and winter. — Similar, but without the black on the throat 

 and bill, or the dusky spots below ; breast, buff. 



Downy young. — Head and neck striped black and white, a rufous spot on 

 the crown, another on the nape and one on each side of the head ; back, black- 

 ish, with four grayish-white stripes. 



Islest in shallow water, a heap of decaying leaves ; eggs, four to eight, soiled 

 white. 1.70 x 1.18. 



Chiefly a migrant, occurring most abundantly from March loth to 

 April 20th, and in November; said to winter occasionally. 



This species is common on the ponds of the interior, and on the 

 creeks and rivers, but seems to be rare on the sea coast. Beesley' does 

 not mention it as occurring on the Cape May coast, nor did Scott- 

 observe it at Long Beach, while Laurent^ has met with it but twice 

 on Five Mile Beach. 



It was reported to Mr. Ehoads as a regular breeder on Lake Hopat- 

 cong,* and Thurber^ gives it as a rather rare summer resident in 

 Morris county, but states that he had never found a nest, nor had any 

 nest been recorded from the State up to 1906. 



On May 30th of that year the Grebe was found nesting in the New- 

 ark marshes, and during the season five nests were discovered by 

 Messrs. Hann, Callender, H. F. Merriam, W. D. Miller and C. G. 

 Abbott.*' Eggs were found as early as May 30th and as late as Au- 

 gust 5th. On June 6th, 1908, Mr. E. C. Harlow found two nests in 

 the same marshes, one with fresh eggs, the other with downy young. 



^ Geol. Cape May county, p. 145. 



= Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1879, p. 228. 



= O. and O., 1892, p. 43. 



* Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 38. 



^ Birds of Morris county. True Dem. Banner, November 10th, 1887. 



" C. G. Abbott, Auk, 1907, pp. 1-11. 



