GENUS PODILYMBUS LESSON. 

 PODILYMBUS PODICEPS (LINN.). 



4. Pied-billed Grebe. (6) 



Length, 12 to 14; wing, about 5; bill, 1 or less; tarsus, H. Adult: Bill 

 bluish, dusky on the ridge, encircled with a black bar ; throat with a long black 

 patch ; upper parts blackish- brown ; primaries ashy-brown ; secondaries ashy 

 and white; lower parts silky white, more or less mottled or obscured with 

 dusky; the lower neck in front, fore breast and sides, washed with rusty. 

 Young lacking the throat-patch and peculiar marks of the bill, otherwise not 

 particularly different; in a very early plumage with the head curiously striped. 



HAB. British Provinces southward to Brazil, Buenos Ayres and Chili, 

 including West Indies and the Bermudas, breeding nearly throughout its range. 



Nest, a little floating island of withered reeds and rushes mixed with mud, 

 fastened to the aquatic plants, raised two or three inches above water. 



Eggs, five to seven, whitish, clouded with green. 



The Dab Chick is not quite so numerous as the Horned Grebe, 

 neither is it so hardy, being a little later in arriving in spring, and 

 disappearing in the fall at the first touch of frost. It is generally 

 distributed, and is the only one of the family which breeds in Hamil- 

 ton Bay, where it may often be seen in the inlets in summer accom- 

 panied by its. young with their curiously striped necks. From its 

 small size and confiding manners it is not much disturbed, but if 

 alarmed it has a convenient habit of sinking quietly under water, not 

 to reappear till danger is past. 



