PODICIPID.i:— TFiE OREI5ES. 263 



Podicps iProctoptis) californicus CouES, rioe. Acad. Nat. 8ei. Phila. 18C2, 331, 404. 

 Podicepsan>-itus.viir.calif'oruieusCovF,s.Key.K12, 337; Check List, 1873, No. 612; 



Birds N. Wi 1874. 733.— Hesbh. Zoal. Wheeler's Ex|i. 1875. 489. 

 Podicipes aitrilus califuniicu.'! CouES. 2d Check List. 1882, No. 850. 

 Vulen nigriciiUis cali/oniicii.i RiD(!\v. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 733 a. 

 Dyles uigricoUis b. cali/oriiiris B. B. & R. Water B. N. Am. ii. 1884, 431. 

 Colymhus nigriiolHs californicu.t RiDOW. Proc. U. 3. Nat. Mus. viii. 1885, 3.5G; Mun. N. 



Am. B. 18S7, «.— A. O. U. Check List, 18Sfi. No. 4. 

 Poditeps auritvs fi californicus BiDOW. Oi-n. 40th Par. 1877. 64^. 



Hab. Northern and western North America, north to Great Slave Lake, south to 

 Guatemala, and east to Mississippi Valley. Breeds nearly throughout its range. 



Sp. Chab. Adult, hreedina-pliimage: Head, neck, and upper parts dull black; on each 

 side of the head, behind the eyes, and occupying the whole of the postocular and auricular 

 region^, a flattened tuft of elon^r.ited, narrow, and poinleil feathers of an ochraceous color, 

 those of the lower part of the tuft inclining to rufous or forrucinous, those along the upper 

 edge straw-yellow or bull, sometimes, but rarely, forming a rather woll-rlenned streak; fore 

 part of (he head sometimes inclining to grayish or smoky dusky. Upper parts blackish 

 dusky, the secondaries— sometimes also the inner primaries— mostly or entirely white. 

 Lower parts satiny white, the sides mixed chestnut-rufous and dusky. Bill deep black: 

 iris bright carmine, with au inner whitish ring; legsandfcet "dusky gray externally, green- 

 ish gray on the inner side" (Audubon). Winter plumnge: Pileum. nape, and upper part.s 

 sooty slate or plumbeous-dusky: malar region, chin, and throat white; aurii'Ular region 

 white, sometimes tinged with pale grayish buff or light grayish; fore part and sides of 

 the neck pale dull grayish; lower parts satiny white, the sides plumbeous dusky. "Upper 

 mandible greenish black, growing pale ashy olive-green on basal third of the commissure 

 (broadly) and on the culmcu; lower mandible ashy olive-green, paler below, and more yel- 

 lowish basally; iris bright orange-red, more scarlet outwardly, and with a fine threadlike 

 white ling around the pupil; tarsi and toes dull blackish on the outer side, passing on the 

 edges into olivegroen; inner side dull light yellowish green; inner too apple-green."' 

 Young, first pinuxuge: Similar to tho winter adult, but colors more brownish. Doicny 

 1/oiing: Top of the head, as far down as tho auriculars. dusky, tho forehead divided 

 medially by a white liue. which soon separates into two, each of which again bifurcates on 

 tho side of tho crown (over the eye), one brauch running obliquely downward and backward 

 to the sides of the nape, the other continued straight back to tho occiput; middle of the 

 crown with a small oblong or elliptical spot of bare reddish skin. Suborbital, auricular, and 

 malar regions, ehin, and throat immaculate white; fore-neck iiale grayish; lower pa; ts white ; 

 becoming grayish laterally and posteriorly; upper parts dusky grayish. 



Total length, about 13.00 inches; extent. 21.00; wing, about 5.20-5.50; culmen. .95-1.10. 



Altlioufth po.ssibly breedinj^ in Illinois, tho American Eared 

 (irebo is icnown only as a transient (spring and fall) visitor, or 

 occasional winter resident. Its habits, which are essentially like 

 those of other species, are very interestinpjly described by Col. 

 N. S. (Joss, in T/ui Ank for January, 1884 (pp. 18-20), to whose 

 very interesting account the reader is referred. 



•Piesh colors of a speoimon (adult male) obtained by the writer at Pynnuid Lake. 

 Nevada. December 21. 1867. 



