22 



THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



plumage : throat dull white ; lower parts without dusky wash ; bill brownish 

 tinged and without black band. Immature plumage: similar to winter 

 plumage but sides of head with brownish streaks. Downy young: with head 

 and neck white and black striped ; rufous spot on crown ; upper parts dark 

 and striped with whitish. Wing 4.60 to 5.10 ; culmen 0.90 , tarsus 1.50. 



Geog. Dist. — From the Argentine Republic through Mexico and the West 

 Indies northward to Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay, breeding locally 

 throughout its range ; wintering from latitude of New Jersey southward. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook; rare, breeds, (Batchelder, B. N. O. C., 7, p. 152). Cumberland; 

 common, (Mead); have taken eggs at Rangely Lakes, (Cobb). Hancock; 

 common, (Dorr). Kennebec; rare summer resident, (Robbins). Knox; 

 (Rackliff). Penobscot; very local summer resident in small colonies, 

 (Knight). Piscataquis; local summer resident, (Knight). Sagadahoc; not 

 common, seen only in fall, (Spinney). Somerset ; a very local summer resi- 

 dent, breeding in scattered colonies of a few individuals, (Knight). Waldo; 

 occasional at least in fall, (Knight). Washington ; common, a few breed, 

 (Boardman). 



This is our commonest and best known Grebe and occurs 

 very generally along the coast from September to November, 

 and rather less often in April and May. In the interior it 

 occurs rather generally but never commonly on various bodies 

 of water during the spring and fall, while locally it remains to 

 nest in small scattered colonies of two to six or eight pair of 

 birds. Small sluggish ponds and lakes where there is abundant 

 growth of rushes and other water vegetation extending above 

 the surface are favorite breeding localities. The birds arrive 

 in these places in May (as soon as the ice has left) and may 

 exceptionally remain as late as the last of November (Athens, 

 Somerset Co., Morrill). A nest found near Palmyra, Maine, 

 June 6, 1897, was composed of a very bulky mass of semi- 

 decayed cat-tails, rushes, equisetums and sedges, floating on the 

 water and attached to some bushes growing in the water. The 

 inside diameter of this nest was five inches and the depth of 

 the nest cavity three-fourths of an inch, while the heap of 

 material extended downward into the water over three feet. 

 The five eggs were dull dirty white much stained by the decayed 

 vegetation surrounding them and with which they were covered 



