196 



THE OOLOGIST. 



since in the same nest may be found 

 Loth red and gray young ones, while 

 the parents may be both red or both 

 gray, the female red and the male gray, 

 or the reverse. I have mounted a great 

 many specimens of both colors, but my 

 experience has been that the per cent, 

 of red ones is much the larger. A nest 

 investigated last spring, April 13th, 

 some thirty miles south of here, con- 

 tained one young one, one pipped egg 

 and one rotten egg. One old one was 

 red, the other gray. The young one 

 was covered with snow-white down. 

 Mrs. Lillie Pleas, 



Clinton, Ark. 



The Divers. 



The Oologist is so useful in raising 

 up young students of bird-life, that I 

 have determined to prepare for it, a 

 series of articles on Typical and Fami- 

 liar Birds. 



So, according to the present received 

 system of classification, I must begin 

 with the Divers, represented by the 

 Grebes and the Loons. They are in a 

 special sense water-birds. The former, 

 indeed, scarcely leave the water at all; 

 and the latter only leave it with great 

 difficulty. 



No student of birds, should fail to 

 strip the skeleton of one of these species, 

 — removing the flesh from the bones by 

 thorough boiling — and compare the pe- 

 -culiar bony structure with the life his- 

 tory and habits of the class of birds in 

 •question. It will at once be seen, how 

 remarkably the feet and legs are con- 

 structed and placed, for swimming aud 

 diving ; and how the specializing for 

 this purpose, has about destroyed all 

 adaptation to life and activity on the 

 land. " Straight as a loon's leg," is an 

 old adage, well taken as far as the loon's 

 leg is concerned, but even it does not 

 point out tne lengthening of the bone 

 of the heel and the immense leg mus- 

 cles, by which the powerful upward 



stroke is given with the foot, in order 

 to throw the buret under water in an in- 

 stant, — between the flash and the ar- 

 rival of the charge of the gun. 



Everything about the Grebe, even to 

 its plumage, is a most interesting study. 

 Nor is anything in connection with it 

 more interesting, than its habits of nidi- 

 fication. The Common or Thick-billed 

 Gi'ebe, may be taken as representative. 

 Its nest is a sort of a pier or mound, 

 built up from the bottom, in water any- 

 where to a foot or eighteen inches deep 

 made of various kinds of decaying veg- 

 etable matter found under water in the 

 locality, and extending a few inches 

 above the surface, this cylindrical shape 

 some eighteen inches in diameter, and 

 neatly rounded aud depressed on the 

 top, contains some six or eight eggs, 

 1.25 x .87 inch, white, rather rough, and 

 tinged and waved with light green. 

 These eggs generally very much soiled, 

 are always more or less covered with 

 the wet material on the nest, and the 

 bird always manages to get off the nest 

 without being seen. The eggs, how- 

 ever, are always warm as those of any 

 other setting bird . 



You need not look on the nest for the 

 younglings, however recently hatched. 

 Bring your boat up ever so stealthily, 

 the instinct of fear is so strong, that 

 they will get away before the motion of 

 the water sways the frail fabric, or your 

 eye can detect them thereon. But they 

 peep like chickens among the rushes, 

 while the mother whistles plaintively 

 but wholly out of sight. Should you 

 succeed in finding them, you cannot 

 but admire their beauty. Jet black, 

 with six narrow white stripes length- 

 wise along the back and up the neck, 

 with reddish markings about the head, 

 bill red, they are white underneath. 

 Now hide away carefully. Soon the 

 mother's soft whistle brings together the 

 scattered brood; and as she swims deep- 

 ly, they may mount on her back and 

 take a ride ; or, should they take alarm 



