8 f GREBES 



been comparatively safe from enemies, and year after year have 

 gone south when the lakes froze over and come back again with the 

 warm spring days. 



But this life of primitive security was rudely broken into when 

 their beautiful silvery breasts and rich brown sides attracted the 

 attention of the plume hunters, and within five or six years the 

 demand for their skins for hats, muffs, and capes has grown so 

 great as to threaten the species, and with it several other species of 

 grebes, with extermination. Hunters go to the breeding-grounds 

 and shoot the old birds when bold in defense of their eggs and 

 young, stripping off their skins and shipping them in thousands to 

 the cities. Unless some wise law intervenes, these harmless, beauti- 

 ful spirits of the lake will soon have disappeared from the face of 

 the earth. VERNON BAILEY. 



Submenus Podiceps. 



5. Colymbus doxninicus brachypterus Chapm. LEAST 



GREBE. 



A tiny dusky grebe, about half as big as the dabchiok ; bill black, tipped 

 with whitish. Adults : top of head and back 

 dull greenish black ; chin and throat blackish ; 

 sides of neck and head plumbeous; breast 

 mottled silvery gray. Wing : 3.80, bill .82. 

 Distribution. From Panama north to 

 22. southern Texas and Lower California. 



Nest . On water, floating among the rushes. Eggs : usually 7. 



These tiny grebes are as common in the ponds of southern Texas 

 as the dabchick in the north. In open water they bob on the little 

 waves, and in quiet pools where the willows overhang the banks 

 swim and dive among the sedges and pink water-lilies. When not 

 seeking food below the surface of the water, they usually keep 

 close to some cover, and in the middle of the day if not hidden in 

 the sedges are found sitting close under the shore grass, or in the 

 shade of a bush or low-hanging tree. VERNON BAILEY. 



GENUS PODILYMBUS. 



6. Podilymbus podlceps (Linn.). PIED-BILLED GREBE : DABCHICK. 



Bill short and stout, head not crested. Breeding plumage : bill whitish, 

 crossed by a black band; upper parts black- 

 ish ; chin and throat black; breast mottled 

 silvery gray. Winter plumage : bill brown- 

 ish, with paler lower mandible ; chin, throat, 

 and breast whitish. Young : head and neck 

 more or less striped with brown, black, and 

 Fig. 23. white Length; 12-15, wing 4.50-5.00, bill 



about .87. 



Distribution. North and South America, except extreme northern and 

 southern parts, breeding throughout most of its range. 



