Vol. XXXIl 



1914 



] BuRTCH, The Diving Grebe. 211 



DOES A GREBE SPREAD ITS WINGS JUST BEFORE 



DIVING? 



BY VERDI BURTCH. 



Plates XXI-XXII. 



On March 10, 1912, 1 got a remarkable photograph of a HolbceH's 

 Grebe {Colymhu^ holhwUi) in the act of diving. It had been a very 

 cold winter and Keuka Lake was frozen over early in January with 

 the exception of the channel through the bar at Branchport, N. Y. 

 Here there is a continual current flowing into and out of the harbor 

 and this keeps the channel open even in the most severe weather. 

 This open area is usually about ten to fifteen rods in diameter and 

 here about six hundred wild ducks. Canvas-backs, American Scaups, 

 American Golden-eyes and a single Buffle-head passed through the 

 same ordeal as described by Alvin R. Cann in ' The Auk ' for 1912, 

 (Vol. XXIX, p. 437), while the conditions were the same as pre- 

 vailed on Cayuga Lake where his observations were made. At 

 the time of which I write the sole survivor of the entire flock of 

 ducks was the little Buffle-head. We had just had several days of 

 very severe cold and the open area was much restricted. This 

 morning I found a Holboell's Grebe with the Buffle-head. It dived 

 as soon as I went near and when it came up uttered a "pup-pup- 

 put " and dived again. It would stay up but a moment between the 

 dives and sometimes stayed under water so long that I began to 

 fear that it had come up under the ice but it eventually came up 

 in the open area each time. As it was above water only a moment 

 each time it was rather difficult to focus the camera and make an 

 exposure before it dived again. Once when it came up quite close 

 to me, I focused and released the shutter at the very instant it 

 started to dive. The resulting picture shows a dark area represent- 

 ing the depression in the water where the Grebe sat at the beginning 

 of the exposure, the 'ghost' of its icings fully spread out behind as it 

 started to lunge forward and the Grebe itself nearly submerged a 

 full length ahead. It would seem to me that the wings were in- 

 stantly spread and closed again as the Grebe lunged forward, the 



