360 PIED-BILLED DOBCHICK. 



The Pied-billed Dobchick may be met with in almost every part of the 

 United States, at one season or other : in the south and west during au- 

 tumn and winter, in the east and north-west in spring and summer, mostly 

 on fresh waters of all descriptions, yet when these are covered with ice, 

 on bays and estuaries, where it searches for shrimps and fry, although un- 

 der other circumstances such haunts are not congenial to it. It is found 

 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, but I did not meet with it in La- 

 brador or Newfoundland. 



I had the good fortune, on the 28th of June, to stumble upon a nest 

 of this bird near the banks of the Wabash river, above Vincennes. It 

 was large for the bird, raised several inches above the muddy and reedy 

 shores of a pond, only a few feet from the water, and composed of de- 

 cayed weeds, rushes, and earth. On being discovered, the sitting bird 

 slid over the mud, along a path that led directly to the water, in which it 

 immediately dived, and I saw no more of it for about twenty minutes. 

 The eggs, which were five, measured an inch and a quarter, by seven and a 

 half-eighths, were smooth, rather rounded, and of a light greenish-white 

 colour. On breaking one of them, I found it to contain a chick consider- 

 ably advanced, which induced me to leave the rest untouched, and before I 

 departed I saw the bird, which I believed to be the female, swimming low 

 at a distance. I watched it for some time, but could not discover another, 

 and walked away to allow it to resume its occupation. The nest was fixed 

 among the stalks of strong reeds, but was not attached to any of them. 

 In the month of August, while on the Cayuga lakes, I saw one of these 

 birds with a brood of young about half grown, but could not obtain a. 

 single specimen, as they dived with extreme quickness, and eluded all 

 pursuit. 



Few birds plunge with more rapidity than this species, which, during 

 submersion, employs its wings, as I had an opportunity of observing while 

 some were passing under a boat when I was in pursuit of them. On the 

 water it is almost impossible to catch them, unless they have been injured in 

 the wing, when they are unable to dive without difficulty. The curious 

 habit which they have of sinking gradually backward in the water, at the 

 sight of an enemy, is very pleasing to observe. Not a ripple do they 

 leave on the spot where they have disappeared, and one unacquainted 

 Avith them can hardly conceive that a bird could have escaped in so dex- 

 terous a manner. My friend Thomas MacCullgch gave me an account 

 of one which, having been observed on a small mill-dam, was pursued by 



