THE HORNED GREBE. 561 
number. They are, when first laid, of a white color; but 
they quickly become dirty and stained by the habits of the 
bird and the nature of the nest. They are of an ovoidal 
form, and average about 2.16 by 1.48 inch in dimensions. 
PODICEPS CORNUTUS. — Latham. 
The Horned Grebe. 
Podiceps cornutus, Nuttall. Man., II. (1834) 254. - Aud. Orn. Biog., III. (1835) 
429; V. (1839) 623. Jb., Birds Am., VII. (1844) 316. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Adult. — Upper part of the head, cheeks, throat, and ruff, glossy-black; a broad 
band running from the bill over the eyes,@nd the elongated occipital tufts behind 
them, yellowish-red, deepest in color adjoining the bill; upper surface brownish-black ; 
the feathers margined with gray; primaries brownish-ash; secondaries mostly white, 
some of the outer one dark-ash; the fore-neck and upper part of the breast bright 
chestnut-red, sides of the same color, intermixed with dusky; abdomen silky-white; 
bill bluish-black, yellow at the tip; loral space bright-carmine; iris carmine, with an 
inner circle of white; tarsi and feet dusky-gray externally, dull-yellow internally, 
and on both edges of the tarsus. 
Young. — The whole upper plumage grayish-black, darkest on the head, feathers 
of the back with gray margins; throat, sides of the head, a broad space on the sides 
of the neck, nearly meeting behind, breast, and abdomen, silvery-white; sides and 
lower part of abdomen dusky. 
Length, about fourteen inches; wing, five and three-quarters; bill, one; tarsi, 
one and three-quarters inch. 
Hab. — Generally distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. 
The Horned Grebe is not uncommon in our lakes and 
rivers, and in the waters on our coast, in the spring and 
autumn. It breeds in more northern localities than New 
England, but is not invariably an arctic breeder. Audubon 
says, — 
“ Although the greater number of these birds go far 
northward to breed, some remain within the limits of the 
United States during the whole year; rearing their young on 
the borders of ponds, particularly in the northern parts of 
the State of Ohio, in the vicinity of Lake Erie. Two nests 
which I found were placed at a distance of about four yards 
from the water’s edge, on the top of broken-down tussocks 
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