PODICEPS OCCIDENTALIS, 641 



Family PODICIPIDiE— Grebes. 



PODIOEPS OCCIDENTALIS. 

 Western Grt!be. 



Podiceps ocoldcniaUs, Lawrence, iu Baird's Birds N. Am., 1S58, 894.— Baird, Cat. 



N. Am. Birds, 185!), No. 704.— CouES, Key, 1872, 33G; Check List, 1873, No. 



COS.- IlENSilAW, 1875, 488. 

 ^chmopUorus occidentalis, CouES, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pbilad., 1862, 229. 

 Podiceps f^chmophortisj occidentalis. a. occidentalis, CouES, Birds N.W., 1874, 



727. 



This large Grebe was very al)undant in Pyramid Lake, wliere it 

 appeared to be a permanent resident. The specimen in the collection was 

 found "snow-bound" in the sage-brush near Carson City, being discovered 

 by its tracks in the deep snow, where it had scrambled along for a hundred 

 yards or more. It was headed toward the Carson River, and had evidently 

 come from Waslioe Lake, about five miles distant, and becoming exhausted 

 by the long flight had fallen to the ground. Li Pyramid Lake, these Grebes 

 were exceedingly abundant in iMay, and were constantly in sight from our 

 boat. When fired at with a rifle they would dive at the report, and upon 

 their reappearance generally showed only the head or head and neck above 

 the surfoce; but they swam so low in the water that we found it exceed- 

 ingly difficult to kill them; one was shot, however, and was found to agree 

 exactly in colors and other respects with the specimen in our collection.' 

 List of specimens. 



402, <? ad.; Carson City, Nevada, January 13, 18G8. 20-40— 8— 5i— 3—22— (?) 

 — (?). Bill, dull, riitber light yellow, the lower maudible deepeuiug iuto orange termi- 

 nally ; culmeu and broad longitudinal space on the side of the basal two-thirds of the 

 lower mandible, dark olive-green, the former nearly black; iris, pure carmine (having 

 much the appearance of a red currant), growing narrowly whitish around the i)tipi! ; 

 tarsi and toes, dull olivaceous yellow, the outer side of the tarsus and joints of the 

 toes nearly black. 



'■ The seasonal changes of plumage, so remarkable in most Grebes, do not manifest 

 themselves in the si)ecies of this group (P. occidentalis and P. clarki), the colors and 

 markings being identical in winter and in the breeding-season. Even the young do not 

 dilfer appreciably from the adult, as is seen from a specimen collected the past season 

 in Nevada, by Mr. IlENSHAW. In view of these facts, as w(ill as in justice to im])ortant 

 l)eculiarities of form, wa should now use the generic name .■Evkmophonts, pr()i»osed by 

 Dr. CouES, for this group. 



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