HORNED GREBE 25 



The love song of the horned grebe is a wonderful combination of 

 weird, loud, striking notes, difficult to describe, but, when once heard, 

 it will never be forgotten; it consists of a series of croaking and 

 chattering notes, followed by several prolonged piercing shrieks; 

 it seems remarkable that such a volume of sound can come from so 

 small a bird. At other times it is usually silent. Prof. Lynds Jones 

 (1909) says: 



When the numbers are so great that large companies are found there is a 

 perpetual conversational undertone decidedly pleasing in quality, accompanied 

 by a sort of play among the birds. 



Mr. W. Leon Dawson (1909) says that 



they raise a curious far-sounding note of complaint, keogh keogh, with a nasal 

 twang or more sharply, keark keark, or even yark yark. 



Winter. In its winter haunts on our coasts the horned grebe is 

 commonly seen singly, or in small flocks, just outside the breakers 

 along the beaches or near the rocky shores, diving for its food, 

 playing about in the waves, or riding buoyantly over them; occasion- 

 ally one is seen asleep with its bill tucked under its scapulars. Often 

 it is more gregarious, particularly on inland lakes, where sometimes 

 as many as 150 to 200 are seen in a flock. When alarmed the whole 

 flock suddenly disappears, all diving in unison. They are said to 

 hunt in flocks, at times, after the manner of mergansers, chasing 

 schools of small fry which are more easily caught in this way. 

 Individuals which linger too far north are sometimes caught by the 

 freezing of lakes and perish for lack of food. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Northern parts of the northern hemisphere. In 

 North America east to southwestern Ungava, eastern Quebec (Mag- 

 dalen Islands), southwestern New Brunswick (Milltown) and east- 

 ern Maine (Washington County). South to southern Ontario (St. 

 Clair Flats formerly), southern Wisconsin (Lake Koshkonong) and 

 northern Nebraska (Cherry County). West to southern British Co- 

 lumbia (Ashcroft, Okanagan and Kamloops) and northwestern 

 Alaska (lower Yukon and Norton Sound). North to central Alaska 

 (Yukon River at Nulato and Fort Yukon), Yukon Territory (near 

 Herschel Island) and northern Mackenzie (60 miles southeast of 

 Fort Anderson and Athabaska-Mackenzie region, north nearly to 

 border of forest) and Keewatin (Fort Churchill). Recorded during 

 summer south of the normal breeding range in Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut (Melrose, July 26; Litchfield County, supposed to have bred 

 in 1906) and Indiana (Sheffield) . Michigan breeding records doubt- 

 ful. In the Old World the species breeds in Iceland, northern Scot- 



