PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA [No. i. 



FIELD-NOTES. 



Colymbus holbcellii (Reinh.). 

 HoLBctxiv's Grebe. 



I found HolboeU's Grebes to be quite common in the Kowak Delta. I first 

 became aware of their presence on the eleventh of June, '99. We had just moored 

 our steamer to the river bank and I was pushing my way among the willows back 

 toward a strip of spruces, when I was startled by a series of most lugubrious cries 

 from directl}^ in front of me. After a moment's hesitation I concluded it must be 

 some species of loon, although I had never heard such a note before. Advancing 

 as quietly as possible I came upon a small lake which was almost surrounded by 

 spruces and margined on my side with willows. I could see nothing on the sur- 

 face for some minutes. A loon would surely have shown himself during that 

 time. Suddenly the curious cries broke forth again, and there within twenty 

 yards of me in a thin patch of grass growing near the shore were two grebes rest- 

 ing on the water. They both took part in the "song," though the voice of one 

 was notabl}^ weaker than that of the other. One of the birds would start with a 

 long wail, and then the other would chime in with a similar note, both winding 

 up with a series of quavering cries very much like the repeated whinnies of a 

 horse. During these vocal demonstrations the neck would be thrown forward and 

 the head and bill tilted upward at an angle of 45 degrees. During the perform- 

 ance the birds were nearly facing each other, but at the conclusion one, presuma- 

 bly the male, would slowly swim around the other. A sUght movement on my 

 part spoiled this interesting scene, for both birds instantly disappeared beneath 

 the water, leaving scarcely a ripple. Finally I barely discerned the head and 

 neck of one near a snag in the dark reflection of the opposite shore. In the patch 

 of grass where the grebes were, I noticed a slight collection of floating hay which 

 I took to be the beginning of a nest. During the succeeding two weeks I found 

 that nearly every pond and lake was the home of a pair of HolboeU's Grebes, but 

 1 never observed more than one pair in a single lake. On the i6th of June I 

 secured a set of four eggs, incubated but slightly. The bird was sitting on the 

 nest when discovered, but promptly dove and did not appear again in the vicinity 

 while I was present. However I once heard its cry from the other end of the 

 lake. The nest consisted of a floating mass of sodden marsh grass, a foot in diam- 

 eter. It was anchored among standing grass in about two feet of water. It was 

 twenty feet from the shore on one side and about the same distance from the edge 

 of the ice, which still existed in a large floe in the center of the lake. The top of 

 this raft of dead grass presented a saucer-shaped depression which was two 

 inches above the surface of the surrounding water. The eggs lay wholly uncovered 

 and could be plainly seen from shore. They are elongate-ovate, dirty white in 

 ground-color, but with a considerable tawny discoloration. Scraping off the outer 

 layerof shell discloses a delicate pale blue. The set measures: 2.17x1.40, 2.18x1.37, 

 2.15x1.35, 2.08x1.34. Although the natives eat loons and gulls as readily as ducks 

 and geese, of the grebes they say, " no good cow-cow; all same dog." 



