GREBES : Family Colymbidae [ 75 ] 



the winter, the abundance of the very similar Horned Grebe has added 

 uncertainty to such records as we have. There is a skin in the Finley 

 collection, taken in June 1908, at Portland, that is evidently a straggler. 

 Woodcock (1902.) recorded it from Dayton as a common resident on the 

 statements of Ellis F. Hadley. Gabrielson noted a few on Siltcoos Lake, 

 western Lane County, on March 2.0, 192.1, that may have been wintering 

 birds. Braly has collected a few skins on the coast, and Gabrielson has 

 one or two taken at Devils Lake, Lincoln County, in November and 

 December, and there is some basis in these records for the belief that the 

 Horned Grebe is the more common form on salt water, and the Eared 

 Grebe, when present, on the fresh-water lakes along the coast. Most of 

 the small grebes of this type collected by the writers on the coast during 

 the winter months have been Horned Grebes. This of course does not 

 preclude the possibility of the Eared Grebe being present in greater num- 

 bers than we have yet detected, but on the basis of the available evidence 

 it is far the more uncommon of the two. Stopping the traffic in the 

 plumage of native birds has been a great boon to this bird, whose silky 

 white breast was once in great demand for millinery purposes, and it has 

 prospered since the plumage laws were passed and enforced. 



Like the Horned Grebe, this species feeds on a variety of small fish, 

 shrimps, and insects, many of the latter land forms picked from the surface 

 of the lakes and bays. It has no appreciable economic importance. 



Western Grebe: 



Aechmofhoms occidentalis (Lawrence) 



DESCRIPTION.- Largest Oregon grebe. "Head without side crests; bill slender; neck 

 nearly as long as body. Adults [sexes alike]: Top of head and line down back of 

 neck, blackish; back slaty gray; throat and under parts silvery white." (Bailey) 

 Downy young: "Upper parts are light mouse gray' in color, darkest on the back, 

 lighter on the crown and shading off to 'pallid mouse gray' on the neck and sides 

 and almost to pure white on the belly; there is a triangular naked spot on the crown." 

 (Bent) Si%e: "Male, length 14-19, wing 7.45-8.50, bill 1.60-3.05. Female, smaller, 

 bill z. lo-i. 48." (Bailey) Nest: Floating platform of dead and rotten reeds, mixed 

 with a few green flags and plastered with stringy vegetable matter. Eggs: 3 to 10, 

 usually 3 to 5 , dull bluish white or cream color to various shades of dirty buff or olive 

 buff, generally more or less nest-stained. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: From central Mexico to British Columbia and Alberta and 

 along Pacific to Manitoba. In Oregon: Nests in Klamath (Upper Klamath Lake) and 

 Lake (Warner Lakes) Counties, often in great colonies. Winters on rivers and bays 

 of western Oregon (Multnomah, Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, Lane, Douglas, Coos, 

 Curry, and Benton Counties). Casual in Umatilla County (June n). 



THE WESTERN GREBE (Plate 10, A) is the largest of the grebes in Oregon 



