294 



Bird- Lore 



away as Portland, Conn., ('Auk, 1 XXIX, p. 233) where they had dropped 

 exhausted on their way to Long Island Sound. 



On February 14, a neighbor, while driving along the high-road, two miles 

 north of Rhinbeck, N. Y., saw a Holboell's Grebe lying in the snow beside the 

 road. Thinking it to be a Duck, he got out of his buggy and was much mystified 

 at the strange aspect of the bird. It was nearly frozen and could not even 



. 







'»:.;";-'«!:!: ~>8 j~™ \f. 





"~V' vK. -."■. 











* 



*"^ >, **"^"W» 







■ 















. 



HOLBCELL'S GREBES 



walk, though it pecked vigorously at him when he put it in his wagon. A 

 short distance further he found another, and took both home with him, where 

 he put them in a chicken-coop. I learned of their capture, and my neighbor 

 kindly let me take them. I communicated with the New York Zoological 

 Park, and meanwhile kept them in a box-stall in the stable, where I fed them 

 on frozen smelts. They seemed to relish these, and next day I was able to 

 procure a number of live minnows, which I put in a tub of water in the stall. 

 The Grebes, which, by the way, were male and female, recovered readily 

 in the warmth of the stable, and were soon able to waddle about the floor and 

 even climb into the tub to catch the minnows. When wet, their plumage would 

 become bedraggled, especially about the head and neck. They became livelier 

 as time went on, and did not seem to be afraid, although pecking vigorously 

 and most tellingly when handled. They had a loud and peculiar cackle, resem- 

 bling both a guinea-hen and a barnyard Goose. When walking, they turned 

 their toes out and their 'knees' in, and sometimes helped themselves along by 

 waving their wings or digging the points of the primaries into the ground. 

 When progressing in this manner, they would end by falling violently forward, 

 and would then sit up abruptly and look around with an amusing expression 

 of indignation at their ignominious predicament. The female was much more 

 pugnacious than the male, while the latter made up for his lack of courage 

 with his voice. 



