THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Order PYGOPODES. Diving Birds. 

 Suborder PODICIPEDES. Grebes. 

 Family PODICIPID^. Grebes. 



Key to the species of the PODICIPID^. 



A. Wing under 6.50 inches, bill under 1.20 inches in length. 



1. Depth of bill at nostril over 0.35 inch. Pied-billed Grebe. 



2. Depth of bill at nostril under 0.35 inch. Horned Grebe. 



B. Wing over 6.50 inches, bill over 1.20 inches long. Holbcell's Grebe. 



Genus COLYMBUS. Linn^us. 

 Subgenus COLYMBUS. 



2. Colymhus liolhoellii. (^Reinh.). HolboelPs Grebe. 



Plumage in summer adults : throat, sides of head, belly silvery white ; back 

 blackish changing to black at back of neck which with crest and top of head 

 is black ; sides somewhat rufous, and front and sides of neck decidedly so. 

 Winter adults : upper parts dark, brownish tinged ; under parts not so pvu-e 

 glossy white. Immature birds : similar but with neck and sides grayish 

 instead of rufous. Wing, 7.25 to 8.00 ; culmen 2.00 ; tarsus 2.25. 



Geog. Dist. — Entire North America, Greenland, eastern Siberia, southward 

 to Japan ; breeding from northern Minnesota northward through interior 

 North America and in fall migrating southward even to South Carolina and 

 Nebraska. 



County Records — Androscoggin ; I have a male which was taken on Lake 

 Auburn, Oct. 8, 1899, (Johnson, J. M. 0. S., 1900, p. 32). Cumberland; not 

 uncommon winter resident, (Lord). Hancock; occasional fall to spring. 

 (Knight). Kennebec; one taken in the Kennebec River at Augusta, Dec. 

 10, 1897, (Noble, Me. Sp. Feb. 1898, p. 21). Knox ; winter resident, (Norton). 

 Sagadahoc ; not common, few in winter, (Spinney). Waldo ; occasional fall 

 to spring, (Knight). Washington; common, (Boardman). York, (Butters), 



Though a regular winter visitor along the coast from as 

 early as the last of September to late April (April 24, 1900, 

 Lord) apd to be confidently expected almost anywhere in the 

 coast district during this season, the species cannot possibly 

 be called common. Occasionally individuals are likely to be 



