BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 9 



localities where found, they so effectually conceal their nests 

 that they are very rarely obtained. But where they have been 

 found the nest was uniformly formed of partially decayed 

 reeds, with perhaps a portion of coarse, sedgy grass in the 

 employment of which little architectural design is evident. 

 As in the case of the other Grebes, there is a redundancy of 

 material, but so rudely disposed as to lead any one in search of 

 the nest to suppose it to be a mere heap of drift from high 

 water in spring, the eggs having been left concealed by the 

 disposition of rotten reeds and grass over them. None I have 

 seen have contained more than five or less than three eggs of a 

 soiled, yellowish -white color. Pot-hunters "of the baser sort" 

 call them Hell-divers, and only the downy-chinned variety spend 

 any ammunition on them, as they disappear with ghost-like 

 celerity on their approach. Only their bills rise again until 

 the hunter is finally gone. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Upper plumage, very dark-brown; primaries, dark-ash: 

 secondaries, ash on the outer webs and white on the inner; 

 cheeks, and sides of neck, brownish-gray; chin and throat 

 marked with a conspicuous black patch nearly two inches in 

 extent; lower part of neck, upper part of breast and sides, dull 

 rusty-brown, spotted and rather indistinctly barred with 

 brownish-black; lower part of breast and abdomen grayish 

 white, mottled with dusky spots; bill pale-blue, dusky on the 

 ridge of the upper mandible, a broad black band across both 

 mandibles and including the nostrils; iris, brown; tarsi and 

 feet, grayish black. 



Length, 14; wing, 5^; tarsus, 14. 



Habitat, both Americas. 



With nothing economic, nor esthetic to commend it to the at- 

 tention of men, women or hunters, (who contemptuously call 

 it Dab-chick, Water- witch, or "Hell-diver") it is left solely to 

 the heritage of the naturalist. I think the populai- cognomen 

 of "Water witch" should be preferred, their habits in diving 

 and concealing themselves affording a shadowy but plausible 

 reason for the choice. Mr. Holzinger gives this species as 

 breeding around Lake Winona, and Mr. Washburn found it 

 abundant at Ada and at Thief river. It is universally distri- 

 buted. The food consists of small fishes, aquatic worms and 

 plants. 



