Vo1 ' wf™ 1 ] Wetmohe, Birds of Lake Burford, N. Mex. 235 



On July 1, I examined a colony of about forty nests and found that the 

 young had hatched in about two-thirds of them while the eggs in the re- 

 mainder were heavily incubated. The nests were grouped in a growth of 

 Scirpus occidentalis from twenty to thirty feet apart. Thev were the usual 

 rounded masses of decaying vegetation built up two inches above the 

 water with a slight hollow in the top to contain the eggs. Some had been 

 partly covered by aquatic vegetation drawn up by the parent birds before 

 leaving, while in others the eggs lay in the open with no attempt at conceal- 

 ment. Apparently the young leave the nest as soon as hatched as though 

 I found broken eggshells in which the membranes were not yet dry, the 

 young were nowhere to be seen. Adult grebes swam ahead of me through 

 the water plants, diving when I came too near, but not seeming greatly 

 alarmed. Often they were accompanied by young ten or twelve days old 

 that swam close behind, almost touching the body of the adult bird or 

 climbed upon the back of the parent to be held beneath the wings while 

 the old bird swam away. Adults were seen feeding these young, calling 

 them up across the water and placing food in their bills. These juvenile 

 birds had a wrinkled space of thickened reddish skin bare of feathers on 

 top of the head. 



2. Podilymbus podiceps (Linnaeus). Pied-billed Grebe. — This 

 species was common at Lake Burford and was breeding. Though part of 

 these birds were pairing when I first arrived some were nesting already and 

 all bred earlier than did the Eared Grebes. Their actions were no less 

 interesting than those of the preceding species but these grebes were some- 

 what more difficult to watch. Each male had selected a restricted area 

 as his own and though he made excursions occasionally out into the open 

 lake, was usually to be found near one certain place. Usually this was a 

 small opening in the rushes fifteen or twenty feet across, often with a 

 slender line of tules projecting in a point that separated a little inner bay 

 from the open water. Ordinarily the male was found in the slight pro- 

 tection of the slender tules or in the open a short distance outside while 

 his mate lay hidden somewhere within. These birds were continually on 

 the alert and watched every move on the marsh, swimming slowly or rest- 

 ing quietly, always with their short tails pointing up at an angle of 45 de- 

 grees to display the white below prominently. They were the only marsh 

 birds of whom the male coots seemed to be afraid, and it was seldom that 

 a coot ventured to attack one, though pugnacious to an extreme toward 

 most other swimming birds, a respect that was well warranted as the grebes 

 were aggressive and savage. These male grebes called at short inter- 

 vals, listening to others at a distance and frequently answering them. 

 Their notes were loud and sonorous, and in calm weather could be heard 

 plainly across the water for half a mile but could be modulated and con- 

 trolled also so that though the birds were only a few yards away the sounds 

 seemed to come from a great distance. The most common note was a loud 

 coh coh coh coh coh coh cow cow cow cow, the first series of notes increasing 



