Vol 'wi9 XVI ] DuBois, Nesting of the Horned Grebe, 177 



white markings. The white secondaries cause the posterior 

 portion of the wing to show as a prominent white area, and of 

 course the entire under surface of the body, being white, is very 

 conspicuous when the bird wheels. The flight is so duck-like 

 that the flying Grebe might readily be mistaken, at a distance, 

 for a duck. 



I waded to the spot whence this bird had taken flight and pres- 

 ently saw the water agitated by some small creature beneath the 

 surface. It was one of the diminutive downy Grebes, floating 

 submerged, head downward, with its forward parts thrust into a 

 mass of filamentous vegetation (algae), while its legs, stretched 

 to their full extent posteriorly, were pointed vertically upward 

 toward the surface of the water. I easily took it up in my hand. 



The next day, July 18, at 7:30 P. M., another egg had hatched. 

 The nest was not covered. It contained two eggs and nearly all 

 of the opened shell of the other, which last circumstance was of 

 course unusual. I heard the young bird, and by following the 

 faint sound of its voice found it, in the water, about six or eight 

 feet from the nest. It was small enough to have just emerged from 

 the shell. Its bill was very pink and the naked red spot, or comb, 

 on its forehead very bright, though only slightly raised above the 

 surrounding skin. By the merest chance I discovered a downy 

 young duck within a few feet of the Grebe's nest. It was not 

 identified. Perhaps it had been attracted by the cry of the little 

 Grebe. The adult Grebes were not seen, either on this visit or on 

 July 20, when I looked for them early in the morning. On the 

 latter date the two eggs and the nest were cold and the orphan 

 above mentioned was dead, on the slope of the nest just above the 

 surface of the water. There was an opening in the top of its 

 skull through which its brain had been removed by some small 

 creature. This nestling had probably never seen its parents but 

 had taken to the water wholly by instinct. 



On the evening of July 22, the two eggs were cold and had not 

 been disturbed since my previous visit, at which time their posi- 

 tions had been carefully noted. However one of them was 

 "pipped" and I could distinctly hear the voice of the bird within 

 the shell. A search for the parent Grebes was without avail. A 



