ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 8-No. 1 



with eggs nicely covered, resembles a float- 

 ing bunch of half decayed moss, showing 

 above the water about the size of an in- 

 verted soup-plate, and would be rarely no- 

 ticed by a person unacquainted with it. 

 I foimd my first nest by accident, and 

 could hardly believe that little bunch of 

 wet stuff was a bird's nest, but I secreted 

 myself and watched with a glass until the 

 bird retTxrned, which I at once recognized 

 as a Carolina Grebe. After this I had no 

 trouble in finding more nests, and by set- 

 ting traps upon them caught several birds 

 and fully identified the species. The nests 

 are all much alike, and entirely different 

 from any other with which I am acquaint- 

 ed. They are always built in places pro- 

 tected from high waves, or they would be 

 speedily overwhelmed. 



The Eared Grebe breeds in communities. 

 The first colony that I found was in a 

 small lake in northern Dakota. The nests 

 were built on floating debris about fifteen 

 rods from shore, where the water was per- 

 haps three feet deep. Old flag leaves, 

 rushes, reeds, etc., had been driven by the 

 wind into the point of a bay, forming a 

 mass two or three inches deep and several 

 square rods in extent. This mass was 

 firm enough to hold up the birds in most 

 places, but was full of holes where they 

 could dive through. There were at least 

 twenty-five nests, on an area of ten by 

 twenty feet. They were made of partly de- 

 cayed moss and reeds brought up from the 

 bottom, were small, not more than a hand- 

 ful of material to a nest. The eggs are 

 clear, blueish-white at first, but soon get 

 discolored by the wet nest. No nest in 

 this colony contained more than four eggs, 

 but in other places five have been found. 

 The birds generally cover all. The situa- 

 tion of their nests was entirely open, the 

 shore was high and completely overlooked 

 them. I sat on the shore and with a glass 

 saw the birds building nests and setting 

 on their eggs. As we approached in a 

 boat they did not seem very shy ; did not 



begin to leave till we were quite near them. 

 Most of them covered their eggs more or 

 less before leaving. They mostly dove 

 directly from nest and came up near in a 

 flock. A few ran out and joined the flock 

 without diving-. Another small colony of 

 these birds built their nests on bunches of 

 broken down rushes. The nests were small 

 and just above the Avater. No person fa- 

 miliar with the breeding habits of these 

 birds could mistake the nest of one for the 

 other. The Carolina nest singly, in thick 

 rushes, weeds or grass, sometimes a long 

 distance from open water, build the foun- 

 dation of nest, which is large, always 

 cover their eggs with great care when leav- 

 ing them, are very shy, never seen near their 

 nest, lay from six to nine eggs, begin lay- 

 ing in Wisconsin by the 10th of May, in 

 Dakota about the 20th. 



The Eared builds in communities, in 

 ojien situations near open water, make a 

 small nest, on some existing foundation, 

 cover eggs partly, or not at all, are not 

 particularly shy, are often seen near nest, 

 lay four or five eggs, do not begin laying 

 till June. I have carefvdly measured thirty 

 eggs of each variety. The Carolina aver- 

 age : 1.69x1.17. The Eared 1.75x1.19. 

 Contrary to my expectations the Eared are 



the largest. — Ji. F. Goss, J^etoaukee, Wis. 



^ 



Explanation. — The ground owls do not 

 always lay more eggs than those inhabiting 

 trees, for I have known Wilson's Short- 

 ear to lay five, the Bam Owl seven, and 

 heard of Great Horned Owls with four. 

 The Barn Owl does not seem to lay more 

 in the ground burrows than in trees or 

 caves, but varies much in number. I 

 think it is dependent on amount of food 

 and perhaps of room. I suspect the little 

 Burrowing Owl of Polygamv in some 

 cases, or perhaps it is parasitism. — J. G. 

 Cooper, M. ./>., Hayward, Cal. 



[We thank Dr. Cooper for his reply, for it is in that way 

 we can get at facts. We have in our collection Burrowing 

 Owl 10, Barn Owl 8 and T, Short-eared Owl 8, Snowy Owl 6, 

 C4ray Owl 4, Lono;-eared Owl .'5, Hawk Owl 6, Mottled Owl 4, 

 Great-horned Owl 3 and Barred Owl 3. The remarks on 

 Burrowinj; Owl will call for further careful observations- 

 En. ] 



