PODICIPID.E THE GREBES. 263 



fodicpps (Proctopus) californicus COUES, Proc. Acad. Nat, 8cl. Phila. 1862, 231. 404. 

 Poduteps auritus, var. californicus COUES. Key, 1872, 337; Check List, 1873, No, 612; 



Birds N. W. 1874, 733. HENSH. Zool. Wheeler's Exp. 1875, 489. 

 Podicipes auritus californicus COUES, 2d Check List, 1882, No. 850. 

 Dytes nigricollis californicus RIDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 733 a. 

 Dytes nigricollis b. californic <s B. B. & B. Water B. N. Am. ii, 1884. 434. 

 Colymbus nigricollis californicus KIDGW. Proc. U. 8. Nat Mus. viii, 1885, 356; Man. N. 



Am. B. 1887. 6. -A. O. U. Check List, 1886. No. 4. 

 Podiceps auritus ft ealiforr,icus RIDGW. Orn. 40th Par. 1877. 642. 



HAS. Northern and western North America, north to Great Slave Lake, south to 

 Guatemala, and east to Mississippi Valley. Breeds nearly throughout its range. 



SP. CHAR. Adult, breeding-plumage: Head, neck, and upper parts dull black; on each 

 side of the head, behind the eyes, and occupying the whole of the postocular and auricular 

 regions, a flattened tuft of elongated, narrow, and pointed feathers of an ochraceous color, 

 those of the lower part of the tuft inclining to rufous or ferruginous, those along the upper 

 edge straw-yellow or buff, sometimes, but rarely, forming a rather \vell-deflnedstreak; fore 

 part of the head sometimes inclining to grayish or smoky dusky. Upper parts blackish 

 dusky, the secondaries sometimes also the inner primaries mostly or entirely white. 

 Lower parts satiny white, the sides mixed chestnut-rufous and dusky. Bill deep black; 

 iris bright carmine, with an inner whitish ring; legs and feet "dusky gray externally, green- 

 ish gray on the inner side" (AUDUBON). Winter plumage: Pile urn. nape, and upper parts 

 sooty slate or plumbeous-dusky; malar region, chin, and throat white; auricular region 

 white, sometimes tinged with pale grayish buff or light grayish; fore part and sides of 

 the neck pale dull grayish; lower parts satiny white, the sides piumbeous-dusky. "Upper 

 mandible greenish black, growing pale ashy olive-green on basal third of the commissure 

 (broadly) and on the culmen; lower mandible ashy olive-green, paler below, and more yel- 

 lowish basally ; iris bright orange-red, more scarlet outwardly, and with a fine thread-like 

 white ring around the pupil; torsi and toes dull blackish on the outer side, passing on the 

 edges into olive -green; inner side dull light yellowish green; inner toe apple-green."* 

 Young, first plumage: Similar to the winter adult, but colors more brownish. Downy 

 young: Top of the head, as far down as the auriculars, dusky, the forehead divided 

 medially by a white line, which soon separates into two, each of which again bifurcates on 

 the side of the crown (over the eye), one branch running obliauely downward and backward 

 to the sides of the nape, the other continued straight back to the occiput; middle of the 

 crown with a small oblong or elliptical spot of bare reddish skin. Suborbital, auricular, and 

 malar regions, chin, and throat immaculate white; fore-neck pale grayish ; lower'pa. ts white; 

 becoming grayish laterally and posteriorly ; upper parts dusky grayish. 



Total length, about 13.00 inches ; extent, 21.00; wing, about 5.20-5.50 ; culmen, .95-1.10. 



Although possibly breeding in Illinois, the American Eared 

 Grebe is known only as a transient (spring and fall) visitor, or 

 occasional winter resident. Its habits, which are essentially like 

 those of other species, are very interestingly described by Col. 

 N. S. Goss, in The Auk for January, 1884 (pp. 18-20), to whose 

 very interesting account the reader is referred. 



*F esh colors of a specimen (adult male) obtained by the writer at Pyramid Lake. 

 Nevada, December 21, 1867. 



