HORNED GREBE. 431 



of a vivid red, with an inner circle of white, which gives it a very singular 

 appearance. On attentively examining the eyes of our Divers and Grebes, 

 I have not found any with similar eyes. The Horned Grebe does not 

 seem to see better than any other species, nor does it appear to be more 

 diurnal than the rest, nor are the objects on which it feeds more minute, 

 for I have found as small seeds in the stomach of the large Grebe as in 

 that of the present species. The reason of this strange colouring of the 

 iris, therefore, I am unable to conjecture. 



Although the greater number of these birds go far northward to breed, 

 some remain within the limits of the United States during the whole year, 

 rearing their young on the borders of ponds, particularly in the northern 

 parts of the State of Ohio, in the vicinity of Lake Erie. Two nests which 

 I found were placed at a distance of about four yards from the water's edge, 

 on the top of broken down tussocks of rank weeds. The materials of which 

 they were composed were of the same nature, and rudely interwoven to a 

 height of upwards of seven inches. They were rather more than a foot 

 in diameter at the base, the cavity only four inches across, shallow, but 

 more neatly finished with finer plants, of which a quantity lay on the bor- 

 ders, and was probably used by the bird to cover the eggs when about to 

 leave them. There were five eggs in one nest, seven in the other ; all 

 contained chicks (on the 29th of July) ; they measured one inch and three 

 quarters in length, by one inch and two and a half eighths ; their shell 

 was smooth, and of a uniform yellowish cream colour, without spots or 

 marks of any kind. The nests were not more than fifty yards apart, on 

 the south-western side of the pond. I am thus particular because of the 

 near relation of this bird to the Podiceps aur'itus of Latham, with which 

 it may be confounded by a not over-careful observer, as may the eggs too, 

 those of the latter species being precisely of the same length, but fully an 

 eighth of an inch narrower, which of course gives them a more elongated 

 appearance. I have observed the same differences in the eggs of these two 

 species in Europe. I could not ascertain if both the parent birds incubate ; 

 but as I saw two pairs on the pond, I am inclined to think that they do. 

 The nests were not fastened to the weeds around them, nor do I conceive 

 it probable that they could be floated, as various writers assert they are 

 at times. 



I have not seen the young of this species when small ; but from the 

 knowledge I have of those of other Grebes, T feel pretty certain that the 



notions entertained of their being carried either on the back or under the 



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