9() NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



seen on land, but this species and the HollDoell grebe are sometimes found on 

 the ice when bays and ponds suddenly freeze in winter. They are sometimes 

 found on the snow far inland in an exhausted condition. Indeed it seems 

 quite impossible for a grebe to take flight either from land or water unless 

 a considerable level stirface is before it over which to propel itself both by 

 wings and feet while rising. 



Podilymbus podiceps (Linnaeus) 

 Pied-billed Grebe 



Plate I 



Colymbus podiceps Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. Ed. lo. 1758. i: 136 

 llydroka carolinensis DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 277, fig. 308 

 Podilymbus podiceps A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 6 



podilym'lnis, evidently a contraction of podicipes and colymbus; pdd'iceps, an 

 im])ropcrly formed word from podex, podicis, rump, and pes, pedis, foot 



Description. Breeding plumage: Upper parts brownish black; front 

 and sides of the neck brownish gray, with concealed dusky mottlings; a 

 large black iJiroat patch; under parts silvery ash, obscurely mottled with 

 blackish, especiall}' on the breast and sides; bill short and thick, dull bluish 

 white, with a black band near the middle; eyelids white; iris brown and 

 white; feet greenish black, lead color on the inside. In winter: Bill dusky 

 yellowish, with no band; throat whitish, without the black patch. Young: 

 Striped with white and buflfy about the head. 



Length 12-14 inches; extent 22-24.5; wing 4.5-5; bill .85; hight of 

 bill at nostrils .4; tarsus 1.5; middle toe and claw 2.15. 



Field marks. This bird has a more brownish cast than our other 

 grebes, but the best mark at all seasons is the shape of its bill, which is 

 short and thick- -more henlike. In the breeding season the black throat 

 patch and band on the bill are distinctive, while in winter it lacks the shining 

 white cheeks of the Horned grebe, which is our onl}^ grebe liable to be 

 confused with the present species. 



Distribution. This bird, called also Dabchick, Hell-diver, Dipper, 

 Didapper, and Water-witch, is found throughout New York during the 

 breeding season, whenever it is undisturbed in its favorite haunts. I 

 have noticed it breeding on the marshes of Seneca river, on the bays of 

 Lake Ontario near Rochester, on Canandaigua and Keuka lakes and on 



