Life Histories of North American 

 Diving Birds 



ORDER PYGOPODES 



Family COLYMBID^. Grebes 



Mchmophorus occidental^ (Lawrence) 

 WESTERN GREBE 



HABITS 



Where the sweet waters of Bear Creek empty into Crane Lake 

 the bare shores of a somewhat alkaline lake are transformed into a 

 verdant slough of tall waving bulrushes surrounding a small grassy 

 island overgrown with scattering patches of wild rose bushes, a green 

 oasis of luxuriant vegetation in the waste of bare rolling plains of 

 southwestern Saskatchewan. Here is the gem of all that wonderful 

 bird country, the center of abundance of breeding wildfowl; at least 

 such was the case in 1905 when we found 25 species of water birds 

 nesting in great profusion within an area less than a mile square, 

 as if all had been crowded together in the most favorable locality. 

 On the island we found 61 ducks' nests in a few hours' search, repre- 

 senting 8 species ; and in the slough surrounding it canvasbacks, red- 

 heads, and ruddy ducks were nesting among the bulrushes and cat- 

 tails. Numerous noisy shore birds were flying about, avocets, kill- 

 deers, long-billed curlews, and marbled godwits. Overhead were 

 floating the characteristic gulls of the region, California and ring- 

 billed gulls, common terns, and the beautiful rosy breasted Franklin's 

 gulls. But it was in the slough itself, amid the constant din of 

 countless yellow-headed blackbirds, that we found the subject of this 

 sketch with a few of its lesser brethren, the eared and the horned 

 grebes, seeking seclusion in the winding aisles of water among the 

 tallest bulrushes and cat-tails. I shall never forget the picture, as I 

 stood in water more than waist deep, of one of these beautiful "swan 

 grebes" sailing out from a dense wall of cat-tails, causing scarcely 

 a ripple as it glided along, the body submerged, the long white neck 



