40 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



6 Tachybaptus podiceps (Linnaeus). 

 Pied-billed Grebe. 



PLATE 2. 



Adults in spring and summer. Length, 12-15. Wing, 4.50-5. Above, brown- 

 ish black ; silvery white below ; indistinctly spotted with dusky and overlaid 

 with buff tips ; throat, black ; bill, white, crossed by a black band. In winter. 

 Feathers tipped witu buff. 



Young in autumn and winter. Similar, but without the black on the throat 

 and bill, or the dusky spots below ; breast, buff. 



Downy young. Head and neck striped black and white, a rufous spot on 

 the crown, another on the nape and one on each side of the head ; back, black- 

 ish, with four grayish-white stripes. 



Nest in shallow water, a heap of decaying leaves ; eggs, four to eight, soiled 

 white. 1.70 x 1.18. 



Chiefly a migrant, occurring most abundantly from March 15th to 

 April 20th, and in November; said to winter occasionally. 



This species is common on the ponds of the interior, and on the 

 creeks and rivers, but seems to be rare on the sea coast. Beesley 1 does 

 not mention it as occurring on the Cape May coast, nor did Scott 2 

 observe it at Long Beach, while Laurent 3 has met with it but twice 

 on Five Mile Beach. 



It was reported to Mr. Rhoads as a regular breeder on Lake Hopat- 

 cong, 4 and Thurber 5 gives it as a rather rare summer resident in 

 Morris county, but states that he had never found a nest, nor had any 

 nest been recorded from the State up to 1906. 



On May 30th of that year the Grebe was found nesting in the New- 

 ark marshes, and during the season five nests were discovered by 

 Messrs. Hann, Callender, H. F. Merriam, W. D. Miller and C. G. 

 Abbott. 6 Eggs were found as early as May 30th and as late as Au- 

 gust 5th. On June 6th, 1908, Mr. R. C. Harlow found two nests in 

 the same marshes, one with fresh eggs, the other with downy young. 



1 Geol. Cape May county, p. 145. 



2 Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 1879, p. 228. 

 8 O. and O., 1892, p. 43. 



4 Stone, Birds of E. Pa. and N. J., p. 38. 



5 Birds of Morris county. True Dem. Banner, November 10th, 1887. 



6 C. G. Abbott, Auk, 1907, pp. 1-11. 



