596 CRESTED GREBE. 



lowing morning and for several days after. They very rarely fly in your 

 presence, and they leave the ponds at night. If forced to rise on wing, 

 they run paddling on the water for several yards before they rise, and 

 fly several times round a pond of thirty or forty yards before they attain 

 the level of the tree-tops, for they never fly through the woods. When 

 once high in the air, they move in a direct course and with speed, towards 

 some other pond or the nearest river. I do not remember to have ever 

 met with a bird of this species on a narrow creek or bayou, or on muddy 

 waters ; and on the Ohio's rising I have observed that they abandon the 

 river and betake themselves to the clear ponds of the interior. 



By the 1st of October, scarcely any difference can be perceived be- 

 tween the young and the old birds with respect to plumage, only the lat- 

 ter have the under surface of the wings still dashed with the reddish co- 

 lour of the summer dress. I am not able to say from observation how 

 long the young are in attaining maturity ; but European writers assert 

 that they take three or four years. When these birds leave the southern 

 waters about the beginning of April, the old already shew their summer 

 head-dress, but seldom have it so perfect as is represented in the plate. 



The food of this species consists of fishes, aquatic insects, and small 

 reptiles, together with the seeds of water plants. Dr Richardson states 

 that these birds are abundant in all the secluded lakes of the mountainous 

 districts of the fur countries, and adds that their nests are formed of a 

 large quantity of grass, placed among reeds and carices, and rise and fall 

 with the water. Mr Yarrell has kindly furnished me with specimens 

 of the eggs, which are generally four, measure two inches and a quarter 

 in length by one inch and a half, have an oval form, and a smooth sur- 

 face, of a uniform yellowish-white colour. 



PoDicEPS CRiSTATUS, Lath. Ind. Omith. vol. ii. p. 780 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of 



Birds of the United States, p. 417- 

 Crested Grebe, or Gaunt, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 250. 



Adult Male in spring. Plate CCXCII. Fig. 1. 



Bill about the length of the head, straight, compressed, tapering. 

 Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, slightly declinate towards 

 the tip, the ridge convex, the sides convex, the edges sharp and inflected, 

 the tip rather sharp. Nasal groove rather wide, extending to nearly half 

 the length of the mandible ; nostrils linear-elliptical, basal, rather small, 

 pervious. Lower mandible with the angle long and extremely narrow; 



