5^8 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Young. Upper part of the head and hind-neck dull-gray, streaked with grayish- 

 white; back and wings blackish-gray, profusely marked with oval-shaped white 

 spots, there being two on each feather, smallest on the upper part of the back and 

 largest on the tertiaries ; quill feathers and tail blackish-brown, the latter edged 

 with white; sides of the neck white, speckled minutely with gray; under plumage 

 silky-white, crossed on the lower part of the abdomen by a dusky band ; bill bluish- 

 gray, dusky on the ridge and flesh-colored at the base. 



Length, twenty-seven inches ; wing, eleven and a half; tail, two and a half; bill, 

 two and a quarter; tarsus, two and three-quarters inches. 



Hob. During the winters as far south as Maryland; inhabits as far north as the 

 arctic seas; found also on the Pacific coast. 



This bird, although pretty common on our coast during 

 the winter, is much more northern in its breeding habits 

 than the Loon ; seldom passing the season of incubation 

 south of Labrador, where it begins to lay early in June. 

 The nests are placed on small islands in fresh- water ponds, 

 a short distance from the sea. " These nests consist merely 

 of a few blades of rank grasses loosely put together, and 

 are quite flat, without any down to warm or conceal the 

 eggs at any period of incubation." They are placed within 

 a few feet of the water, and are approached by well-beaten 

 paths, like those of the preceding. The eggs are usually 

 three in number. They exactly resemble those of the 

 Loon in form, color, and markings, but are much smaller ; 

 varying from 3 to 2.65 inches in length, and from 1.90 

 to 1.75 inch in breadth. 



Sub-Family PODICIPIN.E. The Grebes. 



Bill generally long, compressed on the sides, and pointed ; lores usually naked ; 

 nostrils placed in a groove, oblong and narrow. Wings short, the second quill 

 longest, shorter than the scapulars; the tail is represented by a tuft of downy feath- 

 ers; tarsi much compressed and rather short; toes long, the outer longest, broadly 

 and evenly lobed, most so on the inner side; claws short, broad, and obtuse; tarsi 

 with plates on the sides, in front with a single, behind with a double, longitudinal 

 series of projecting scales; toes and their lobes plated above. 



The plumage is very soft, and on the under surface silky: they are remarkably 

 active on the water, and when alarmed remain' below the surface, exposing only 

 the bill. 



