BIRDS OF NEW YORK 93 



Length 19-22.25 inches; extent 32-36; wing 7.6-8.12; bill 1.9-2. 12; 

 hight of bill at nostrils .55-58; tarsus 2.5-2.57 ; middle toe and claw 2.85-3. 

 The maximum dimensions were taken from an adult male killed on the ice 

 on Irondequoit bay, Monroe county, N. Y., February 22, 1904, which is 

 now in the author's collection. 



Field marks. The large size of this grebe will distinguish it at once 

 from our other species ; and in summer dress the white sides of its head con- 

 trasted with the glossy black crown are very conspicuous at shotgun range, 

 and much farther with a strong glass. Its colors in winter bear a general 

 resemblance to those of the Horned grebe, but the cheeks are not so shining 

 white as in that species. 



Distribution. The Holboell grebe is a fairly common transient and 

 winter visitant on the coastal and larger inland waters of New York State. 

 In the interior counties it has been taken mostly when driven by winter 

 storms or the freezing of northern lakes to alight in snow banks or small 

 creeks and is then quite helpless and can often be caught with the hands, or 

 killed with a stick. During the winter of 1903-4 many of these grebes were 

 taken in this manner. A large flight was stranded near Utica and Clinton and 

 many of them were killed. Every spring and fall several of these birds are 

 seen on Lakes Ontario and Canandaigua by the writer, and they are reported 

 as not uncommon on all the larger lakes of the State, excepting those of 

 the Adirondack region, and are regular winter visitants on the shores of 

 Long Island. Sometimes they alight on the smaller ponds. Mr Embody 

 reports one from Woodman's pond, Madison county, taken in April 1900, 

 and another taken October 25, of the same year. One was taken by the 

 late David Scott of Springville, N. Y., on GrifiEith's pond, Erie coimty, 

 in November 1892. 



Migrations. In the autumn this bird arrives in New York about the 

 middle of October and is sometimes seen in winter wherever there is open 

 water, but is more common late in the fall and during the month of April, 

 when those birds which pass farther south return on their northward journey, 

 leaving us by the middle of May for their breeding grounds in the far north 

 and the interior of British America. There is one very early fall record, a 



