I 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 3 



other Grebes this species covers its eggs before leaving them with grass and vege- 

 table matter gathered from around the bottom of the nest. A set of three eggs, col- 

 lected by H. A. Wallace, in the marshes bordering Long Lake, in Manitoba, exhibit 

 the following dimensions: 2.15x1.20, 2.15x1.32, 2.17x1.14. Their color is a dull white, 

 with the usual soiled surface. Eggs in a large series vary from a whitish to a green- 

 ish white, and there is also a great variation in size, as they measure from 2.05 to 2.55 

 long by 1.20 to 1.50 broad. Mr. Wallace informs me that the number of eggs laid by 

 this species ranges from two to five, and sometimes seven. 



3. HORNED GREBE. Colymbus auritus (Linn.) Geog. Dist. Northern 

 Hemisphere. Breeds from the Northern United States northward. 



The Horned Grebe is a generally diffused and an abundant species throughout 

 North America. It is not uncommon in all suitable places, during the summer 

 months, along the margins 

 of the crystal lakes and 

 rivers of Michigan, Wiscon- 

 sin and Minnesota, and it 

 Is recorded as breeding 

 sparingly in Northwestern 

 Illinois. Mr. Frank W. 

 Langdon makes note of its 

 supposed nesting in Otta- 

 wa county, Ohio.* It breeds 

 commonly in the grass- 

 bordered lakes of the Fur 

 Countries. Dr. Coues says: 

 "I found it breeding at vari- 

 ous points in Northern Da- 

 kota, as along the Red River, in the prairie sloughs, with Coots, Phalaropes, and 

 various Ducks, and in pools about the base of Turtle Mountain in company with P. 

 californicus and the Dabchick.f Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith records it breeding in all 

 suitable places throughout Ontario, notably at St. Clair Flats/'t Mr. Mcllwraith 

 says: "The nest is so completely isolated that the young when hatched may be said 

 to tumble out of the shell into the water." A curious habit of this and other Grebes 

 is that of quietly sinking beneath the surface of the water, or, as it were, like a snow- 

 flake, melt away with scarcely a ripple. The nest of the Horned Grebe, like all 

 others of the family, is simply a floating mass of decayed vegetation fastened to the 

 rushes and reeds in shallow water. The eggs are from two to seven in number, four 

 being the usual nest complement; their shape is more of an oval form than is gen- 

 erally noticeable in the eggs of the Grebes; they are bluish-white in color, with the 

 usual discolorations on the surface. They vary from 1.60 to 1.85 in length, and from 

 1.10 to 1.20 in breadth. 



4. AMERICAN EARED GREBE. Colymbns nigricollis calif ornicns (Heerm.) 

 Geog. Dist. Northern and Western North America, from the Mississippi Valley 

 westward. 



GREBE. 



* Summer Birds of a Northern Ohio Marsh: Journal of the Cincinnati Society of 

 Natural History. Vol. Ill, pp. 220-232. 



t Birds of the Northwest, p. 732. 



$ The Birds of Ontario, being- a list of Birds observed in the Province of Ontario, with 

 an Account of their Habits, Distribution, Nests, Eggs, etc. By Thomas Mcllwraith, Super- 

 intendent of the Ontario District for the Migration Committee of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union. Published by the Hamilton Assocation. Hamilton: A. Lawson & Co., 

 Printers. 18S6. See also new revised edition, 1894. William Briggs. Toronto, publisher. 



