NESTS AND EGGS 



OF 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



NOTE. The nomenclature followed in the present edition of this work is that of the American 

 Ornithologists' Union Code and Check-List.* The numbers to the right in brackets are those of Professor 

 Ridgway's nomenclature, which were used in former editions. The measurements of the eggs are given in 

 inches and hundredths, except in such cases where correspondents have furnished the measurements in 

 millimeters. These will be found reduced to inches and hundredths in foot notes, as appears in the text of 

 the Western Grebe. 



1. jEchmophorus occidentalis (LAWR.) [729.] 



Western Grebe. 



Habitat: Western North America. 



This is the largest of the Grebes in North America. Its distribu- 

 tion extends from Mexico and Lower California on the south, to Wash- 

 ington Territory and the Red River region on the north, breeding 

 nearly throughout this entire range. 



A common summer resident at Utah Lake and also at Lake Mal- 

 heur, in Eastern Oregon, thence eastward to the extensive marshes of 

 Shoal Lake, in Manitoba, where it breeds abundantly. 



Mr. Edward Stebbins found it breeding in an arm of Devils Lake, 

 Dakota, in the first part of June, at which time all the eggs were more 

 or less incubated. He estimates the number of nests observed to be 

 about two hundred in an area of an acre and a half. They were built 

 in water three or four feet deep, and were made of reeds and sedges 

 matted together and fastened to the tall, rank grass, so as to float on 

 the surface. 



It is a remarkable fact that the Grebes cover their nests with 



* The Code of Nomenclature and Check-List of North American Birds adopted by the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union. Being the report of the Committee of the Union on Classification and Nomenclature. 

 New York: American Ornithologists' Union, 1886. 



