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Grebes: Family Colymbidae 



Holboell's Grebe: 



Colymbus grisegena holboelli (Reinhardt) 



DESCRIPTION. "Bill nearly as long as head; crests inconspicuous or wanting. 

 Breeding plumage: Top of head greenish black; back blackish, with brown on wings; 

 sides of head and throat patch white or grayish; neck rufous; lower parts washed 

 with white over gray. Winter plumage: neck brownish. Young: neck rufous." 

 (Bailey) Downy young: "... black above when first hatched, fading to blackish 

 brown or seal brown as the chick increases in size; this color includes the sides and 

 crissum, leaving only the belly pure white; the head and neck are broadly and 

 clearly striped, longitudinally, with black and white; the chin and throat are often 

 spotted with black but are sometimes clear white. There is usually a distinct white 

 V on the top of the head, starting on the forehead, above a superciliary black stripe 

 which usually includes the eyes, and terminating in broad white stripes in the sides 

 of the neck; there is also a medium white stripe or spot on the crown and the back 

 is, more or less distinctly, marked with four long stripes of dull white or grayish. 

 The lighter stripes, especially on the head and neck are often tinged with buffy pink. ' ' 

 (Bent) Si^e: "Length 18-10.50, wing 7.30-8.10, bill 1.65-2.. 40." (Bailey) Nest: 

 A floating platform of dead and rotten reeds and drift, usually built in thick vege- 

 tation in water up to 3 or 4 feet deep. Eggs: Usually 4 or 5, occasionally 6 or, 

 rarely, 8, pale bluish white to "cartridge buff," usually dirty and nest-stained. 

 DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from arctic North America south to Minnesota, 

 North Dakota, Montana, and Washington. Winters principally on coasts south to 

 North Carolina and southern California. In Oregon: Recorded from Lake, Tilla- 

 mook, Lincoln, Curry, Douglas, and Multnomah Counties in fall and winter. 



HOLBOELL'S GREBE, which is next in size to the Western Grebe, can be 

 classed as a fairly common winter resident in the State. Townsend (1839) 

 listed it as found in the territory of Oregon, the only record of it in 

 Oregon literature except for our own notes and specimens. The writers 

 saw and took a single individual at Summer Lake, October 2.5, 19x6 

 (Jewett, orig. No. 5002.), our only definite record for eastern Oregon, 

 where it should appear, in migration at least, as a casual visitor to the 

 larger lakes and rivers. It is evident that it has never been a very common 

 bird there, or some one of the numerous ornithologists who have worked 

 eastern Oregon would have mentioned it. 



For western Oregon we have a number of records in Tillamook and 

 Lincoln Counties, where it frequents the salt-water bays and rivers during 

 the winter months; and Jewett took one August 5, 1931, at Diamond 

 Lake, in Douglas County. In addition there are two specimens from 

 Multnomah County in the Oregon State Game Commission collection, 



