THE PIED-BILLED GREBE. 
631 
morning sun. The bills are so small and slender that there is no possible dan- 
ger at this range of confusing them with the commoner Pied-billed Grebe. 
At some distance and in the confusion of waving grass or tossing billow, 
a grebe may at times be mistaken for a duck, but the leaping dive which 
usually follows discovery or close approach, serves to distinguish it from most 
ducks. The way of the bird in the air, too, is quite unducklike, since it thrusts 
its feet out behind at different angles, and moves with the directness of a 
flying projectile. Upon land the Grebe is almost helpless, and only flounders 
about awkwardly and pitches forward upon its head. 
Concerning the breeding of the Horned Grebe in the state, we have no 
account except that left us by Dr. Langdon in 1880. During a stay of a week 
in the Port Clinton marshes, the Doctor saw no birds; but he came upon 
two sets of eggs of two each, which seemed referable, by elimination, to this 
species. He says: ‘These eggs are chalky-white with a faint, tho definite, 
tinge of pale bluish-green, much like the tint of the Least Bittern’s egg, and 
very unlike the pale whitey-brown of the eggs of P. podiceps observed by us. 
That our sets were probably full is indicated by the fact that one of 
them contained fully developed young, which swam and even attempted to 
dive, on being placed in the water after removal from the egg. ‘The nests 
were similar to those of P. podiceps described below, and the eggs were cov- 
ered in like manner by decaying vegetation during the day and left for the 
sun to incubate. 
“The young removed from these eggs presented slight but constant dif- 
ferences in the head and neck markings, and the size of the bill as compared 
with the young of P. podiceps, obtained in the same manner,—those sup- 
posed to be P. cornutus being smaller, with more slender bills, less blotching 
about the head and neck and none in the median line of the throat.” 
No. 316. 
/ PIED-BILLED GREBE. 
4 
Va, O. U. No. 6. Podilymbus podiceps (Linn.). 
Synonyms.—W ater-wirtcH ; HeLt-pivEr; Dascuick; DikpApprr; DIPPER. 
Description.—Adult in nuptial plumage: Chin and throat glossy black; 
top of head and neck black with an admixture of brownish in_ hair-lines 
and streaks; the forehead with many shortened, webless, glossy, black shafts; 
sides of head gray, passing into grayish brawn on sides and front of neck; lower 
neck and breast and sides mostly blackish, heavily tipped in parted hair-lines with 
fulvous and ochraceous; underparts silky, grayish white mottled with underlying 
dusky, and heavily shaded on sides and behind; above clear brownish black; 
secondaries varied and mottled with some white; bill short and stout, bluish 
white, crossed at the nostril by a heavy black band; feet greenish black. Adult 
in winter: Without black on head; crown dark brown shading on sides of head 
