NESTS AND EGGS 



OP 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



NOTE.The nomenclature followed in the present edition of this work is that of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union Check-List.* The measurements of the eggs are given in 

 inches and hundredths, except in cases where correspondents have furnished the 

 measurements in millimeters. These will be found reduced to inches and hundredths in 

 foot notes, as appears in the text of the Western Grebe. 



1. WESTERN GREBE. /Eclimopliorus occidentalis (Lawr.) Geographic Dis- 

 tribution. Western North America, chiefly the interior, from Mexico and Lowe: 

 California to Manitoba. 



This is the largest of the Grebes in North America. Its distribution extend; 

 from Mexico and Lower California on the south, to the State of Washington anc 

 the Red River Region on the north, breeding nearly throughout this entire range 

 A common summer resident at Utah Lake and also at Lake Malheur, in Easterr 

 Oregon, thence eastward to the extensive marshes of Shoal Lake, in Manitoba 

 where it breeds abundantly. Mr. Edward Stebbins found it breeding in an arm o: 

 Devils Lake, North Dakota, in the first part of June, at which time all the eggs wen 

 more or less incubated. He estimates the number of nests observed to be about tw< 

 hundred in an area of an acre and a half. They were built in water three or four fee 

 deep, and were made of reeds and sedges matted together and fastened to the tall 

 rank grass, so as to float on the surface. It is a remarkable fact that the Grebe: 

 cover their nests with weeds and other vegetable matter before leaving them, cc 

 that incubation may continue during their absence. The Rev. P. B. Peabody ob 

 served the Western Grebe nesting among the flags of Heron Lake, Minnesota, on Jun< 

 2d. Only a few of the nests observed by Mr. Stebbins were covered; the tail grass 

 obstructed the view of the birds, so that when approached they would hurriedly slii 

 off the nests, and leave the eggs exposed. The only birds seen were those in th< 



* Check-list of TT'-th American Birds, prepared by a Committee of the America] 

 Ornithologists' Union; second revised edition, 1895. Kew York, L. S. Foster, Publisher 

 35 Pine street. 



