BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 7 
*** The earliest record I have of its arrival in spring is 
April 23d, but reliable observers give a much earlier date. 
The nesting is begun by the 20th of May. The structures are 
quite bulky, and consist of old reeds principally, placed on a 
tussock of the same material and rudely embracing surround- 
ing erect stalks. Not infrequently they are entirely sur- 
rounded with water, but more often on the wet land a few feet 
from the shores of aslough. The excavation is exceedingly 
superficial, but contains from 7 to 10 eggs, originally grayish 
or yellowish white, that soon become very much soiled by the 
rotten reeds and filthy feet of the denizen. The young take 
to the water at once. The fact that they have been seen swimming 
with the parent as early as the first week in May, and at the 
tenderest age as late as the 8rd of August, suggests more than 
one brood ina season. I have no conclusive evidence that they 
do not breed twice. They linger quite late in the autumn, but. 
are so infrequently observed that the proximate date of their 
migration southward is still unknown to me. 
Like the other species of the genus, they have the faculty of 
depressing their bodies below the surface of the water in which 
they are swimming, at will, in the presence of danger. A good 
field glass will aa at such times only the bill and eyes aheve 
the water. 
*Birds of the N. W., p. 732. 
**Kdward Everett. Maton from Waseca. 
***Correspondence of Mr. L. Froman. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS 
Upper part of head, cheeks, throat and ruff, glossy black; a 
broad band from the bill over the eye, and the elongated oc- 
cipital tufts behind them, yellowish-red, color deepest next the 
bill; upper surface brownish-black, each feather margined with 
gray; primaries brownish-ash, secondaries mostly white, some 
of the outer ones dark ash; fore neck and upper part of breast 
bright chestnut-red, sides of the same color, mixed with dusky; 
abdomen silky white; bill bluish-black, yellow at the tip; loral 
space bright carmine; iris carmine, with an inner circle of 
white; tarsi and feet dusky gray externally, dull yellow inter- 
nally, and on both edges of the tarsus. 
Length, 14; wing, 6; bill, 1; tarsi, 2. 
Habitat, Northern America. 
The foregoing is the description of the vernal plumage, the 
autumnal being much less striking. In the former they are 
sometimes found in considerable flocks, disporting themselves. 
in the bays of our lakes and in the streams which supply 
them. Their smooth, rapid natation and wholesale diving 
_at such times is marvelous and eminently characteristic- 
Bz, 
