NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 3 



presence may not be detected after many weeks stay about its haunts. 



The nest is built similar to that of the common Dabchick, and like 

 other Grebes this species covers its eggs before leaving them with grass 

 and vegetable matter from the bottom of the nest. 



A set of three eggs, collected by H. A. Wallace, in the marshes 

 bordering Long Lake in Manitoba, exhibit the following dimensions : 

 2.15x1.20, 2.15x1.22, 2.17x1.14. Their color is a dull white, with the 

 usual soiled surface. 



Eggs in a large series vary from a whitish to a greenish white, and 

 there is also a great variation in size, as they measure from 2.05 to 2.55 

 long by 1.20 to 1.50 broad. The number of eggs laid by this species 

 ranges from two to five, and sometimes seven. 



3. Colymbus auritus Linn. [732.] 



Horned Greliet 



Hab. Northern Hemisphere. Breeds from the Northern United States northward. 



The Horned Grebe is a generally diffused and an abundant species 

 throughout North America. It is not uncommon in all suitable places, 

 during the summer months, along the margins of the crystal lakes and 

 rivers of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and it is recorded as 

 breeding sparingly in Northwestern Illinois. Mr. Frank W. Langdon 

 makes note of its supposed nesting in Ottawa county, Ohio.* It breeds 

 commonly in the grass-bordered lakes of the Fur Countries. 



Dr. Coues says : "I found it breeding at various points in Northern 

 Dakota, as along the Red River, in the prairie sloughs, with Coots, 

 Phalaropes, and various Ducks, and in pools about the base of Turtle 

 Mountain in company with P. calif ornicus and the Dabchick."t 



Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith records it breeding in all suitable places 

 throughout Ontario, " notably at St. Clair Flats. "| 



A curious habit of this and other Grebes is that of quietly sinking 

 beneath the surface of the water, or, as it were, like a snowflake, melt- 

 ing away with scarcely a ripple. 



The nest of the Horned Grebe, like all others of the family, is 

 simply a floating mass of decayed vegetation fastened to the rushes 

 and reeds in shallow water. The eggs are from two to seven in num- 

 ber, four being the usual nest complement ; their shape is more of an 

 oval form than is generally noticeable in the eggs of the Grebes ; they 



* Summer Birds of a Northern Ohio Marsh: Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 

 Vol. Ill, pp. 220-232. 



■j- Birds of the Northwest, p. 732. 



X The Birds of Ontario^ being a list of Birds observed in the Province of Ontario, with an Account of 

 their Habits, Distribution, Nests, Eggs, etc. By Thomas Mcllwraith, Superintendent of the Ontario Dis- 

 trict for the Migration Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union. Published by the Hamilton Asso- 

 ciation. Hamilton: A. Lawson & Co., Printers. 1886. 



