BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 9 
localities where found, they so effectually conceal their nests 
that they are very rarely obtained. But where they have been 
found the nest was uniformly formed of partially decayed 
reeds, with perhaps a portion of coarse, sedgy grass in the 
employment of which little architectural design is evident. 
As in the case of the other Grebes, there is a redundancy of 
material, but so rudely disposed as to lead any one in search of 
the nest to suppose it to be a mere heap of drift from high 
water in spring, the eggs having been left concealed by the 
disposition of rotten reeds and grass over them. None I have 
seen have contained more than five or less than three eggs of a 
soiled, yellowish-white color. Pot-hunters ‘‘of the baser sort’ 
call them Hell-divers, and only the downy-chinned variety spend 
any ammunition on them, as they disappear with ghost-like 
celerity on their approach. Only their bills rise again until 
the hunter is finally gone. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Upper plumage, very dark-brown; primaries, dark-ash; 
secondaries, ash on the outer webs and white on the inner; 
cheeks, and sides of neck, brownish-gray; chin and throat 
marked with a conspicuous black patch nearly two inches in 
extert; lower part of neck, upper part of breast and sides, dull 
rusty-brown, spotted and rather indistinctly barred with 
brownish-black; lower part of breast and abdomen grayish- 
white, mottled with dusky spots; bill pale-blue, dusky on the 
ridge of the upper mandible, a broad black band across both 
mandibles and including the nostrils; iris, brown; tarsi and 
feet, grayish-black. 
Length, 14; wing, 54; tarsus, 13. 
Habitat, both Americas. 
With nothing economic, nor esthetic to commend it to the at- 
tention of men, women or hunters, (who contemptuously call 
it Dab-chick, Water-witch, or ‘‘Hell-diver’’) it is left solely to 
the heritage of the naturalist. I think the popular cognomen 
of ‘‘Water-witch” should be preferred, their habits in diving 
and concealing themselves affording a shadowy but plausible 
reason for the choice. Mr. Holzinger gives this species as 
breeding around Lake Winona, and Mr. Washburn found it 
abundant at Ada and at Thief river. It is universally distri- 
buted. The food consists of small fishes, aquatic worms and 
plants. 
