46 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



Rev. C. W. G. Eifrig has sent me the following account of an in- 

 cident, which well illustrates the ability of this species to conceal 

 itself: 



It had been very dry for a long time. The sloughs were dry or nearly so. 

 While walking through one, I saw a grebe in the fringe between the plant 

 growth of the center and the outer shore where there was hardly enough 

 cover for a grasshopper to hide. Nor could it find cover in the center, for 

 that is where I came from. It could not dive, because the water was only 

 3 or 4 inches deep. So being forced to adopt desperate means, it threw itself 

 over a tussock in the shallow water, where at once it became invisible at a 

 distance of 10 to IS feet. And the tussock was only as large as 2 or 3 hands. 

 Its neck was lying across, the body pressed against the side as closely as 

 possible and so its colors harmonized exactly with the blackish brown of the 

 tussock. 



Two somewhat similar incidents are related by Mr. Delos E. 

 Culver (1914) which show that these and similar hiding poses are 

 probably frequently used by pied-billed grebes. 



Fall. On the fall migration these grebes proceed slowly through 

 September and October, lingering on the inland ponds and small 

 streams in family parties, in pairs or even singly, sojourning regu- 

 larly in certain favorite spots, but working gradually coastwise. 

 They show a decided preference for fresh water at all seasons, but 

 as the ponds and streams become frozen, they are forced to resort to 

 the open tidal creeks and estuaries. In such places they spend the 

 winter on our southern Atlantic and Gulf coasts and as far north as 

 Washington on the Pacific coast. They also winter to some extent 

 in the rivers and open lakes of the interior, particularly in the 

 Southern States and Mexico. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Breeding range. Nearly entire North and South America in suit- 

 able localities. In North America east to Quebec, New Brunswick, 

 and the Atlantic Coast States. South to Gulf States and Mexico. 

 West to the Pacific coast. North to Vancouver Island, central Brit- 

 ish Columbia (Cariboo district), southern Mackenzie (Great Slave 

 Lake and valley of the Mackenzie River), and Ontario (Sudbury, 

 Parry Sound district, and Ottawa). 



Actual nesting records for Central and South America are not 

 numerous, but the species is resident south to Argentina Republic 

 and Chile. The bird breeding in the West Indies has been separated 

 as Podilymbus podiceps antillarum Bangs, but its validity has been 

 questioned. 



Winter range. Birds breeding in the northern United States and 

 southern Canada winter in the southern United States and Mexico. 

 From New York and New Jersey (occasionally), Virginia (Ashland, 

 Hanover County), and District of Columbia (Potomac River) south- 



