WESTERN GREBE 3 



season. It was almost impossible to count or even to estimate the 

 number of western grebes in this colony, for the nests were scat- 

 tered over a wide area among the reeds or bulrushes (Scirpus 

 lacustris), and many of them were beyond our reach in water too 

 deep to wade; there were certainly hundreds, and perhaps over a thou- 

 sand of them. The nests were floating in water 2 feet deep or more 

 and consisted of compact masses of rubbish, dead and rotten reeds, 

 mixed with a few green flags, and plastered with soft slimy vege- 

 table substances. They were generally anchored to growing bul- 

 rushes in plain sight, but some were well concealed from view in 

 thick clumps. They were built up from 3 to 5 inches above the 

 water and measured from 18 to 25 inches in diameter, the inner 

 cavity being from 7 to 9 inches in diameter. We were surprised to 

 find the bodies of a large number of these grebes lying dead on or 

 near their nests, during both seasons, and were unable to account 

 for it; sometimes two bodies were found at one nest. Muskrats 

 were quite common in this slough, and a pair of minks had a den 

 on the island; perhaps the latter may have indulged in a midnight 

 massacre. In another deep-water slough, near Crane Lake, we 

 found a small colony of 12 or 15 pairs of western grebes nesting 

 among the cat- tail flags (Typha lati folia), where the nests were often 

 well concealed in thick clumps. 



Although they were not so shy and retiring about their breeding 

 grounds as the other grebes, I was never able to surprise a western 

 grebe on its nest until one cold, rainy day when I waded into the 

 slough and saw the birds sliding off their nests all around me, 

 swimming away almost under my feet and bobbing up unexpectedly 

 near me; the sun came out soon afterwards and I longed for my 

 camera; I tried to repeat the experience later but never succeeded. 

 Apparently they sit more closely in wet weather, but under favor- 

 able circumstances do not find it necessary. Evidently both sexes 

 assist in incubation. They seldom, if ever, cover the eggs with the 

 nesting material as other grebes do. I once flushed a female ruddy 

 duck from a clump of bulrushes, but a careful search revealed 

 nothing but grebes' nests and later I took from a grebe's nest two 

 eggs of the western grebe and an egg of the ruddy duck. The 

 smaller grebes also occasionally lay an egg in a western grebe's 

 nest. 



In North Dakota the western grebes breed abundantly in some 

 of the sweet-water lakes, generally in deep water and often among 

 the tall canes and wild rice which grows 8 or 10 feet high. The 

 extensive marshes of tall canes (Phragmites communis) bordering 

 the Waterhen River in Manitoba form a safe and almost inaccessi- 

 ble breeding resort for this species where large numbers find a con- 

 genial summer home. The water in these marshes is too deep to 



