Plate LXIII. 



Fig. 2. POD/LYMBUS PODICEPS -Thick-billed Grebe. 



The Thick-billed Grebe is the common Dabchick, Water-witch, Dipper, or Diver so frequently seen 

 in the spring and fall along water-courses throughout the state. In the northern counties it is a common 

 summer resident, while in the central and southern counties it is but occasionally seen during the breeding- 

 season. It builds the latter part of May or the first of June. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest is placed in a marsh, often considerable distance from land. The large lake marshes in 

 the northern part of the state are the most frequented places. 



POSITION : 



The nest is situated either in a bunch of saw-grass, or other grass or reeds, or is composed of a 

 floating mass of material anchored in open water. Dr. Langdon observed a number of nests in the 

 marshes of Ottawa county, in 1880. Writing of them in "Summer Birds of a Northern Ohio Marsh," he 

 says: "As more or less doubt appears to prevail in regard to the building of floating nests by members 

 of the Grebe family, I desire here to testify to the fact that the nest of the present species does float, 

 notwithstanding the skeptical ' it is said ' of Dr. Coues, in his remarks on the nidification of the family." 



MATERIALS : 



When the nest is situated in a bunch of grass, the blades are matted against the earth, and on top 

 a little well selected material is added as a sort of lining. If the nest is a floating one, a clump of 

 grass or other detached vegetation is taken as a nucleus, and the birds add to this moss, mud, blades 

 of grass, and reeds until it reaches sufficient dimensions. The part above water is chiefly mud and 

 grass. Dr. Langdon, in the same article quoted from above, says: "The little floating island, of decay- 

 ing vegetation held together by mud and moss, w 7 hieh constitutes the nest of this species, is a veritable 

 ornithological curiosity. Imagine a * pancake' of what appears to be mud, measuring twelve or fifteen 

 inches in diameter, and rising two or three inches above the water, which may be from one to three feet 

 in depth; anchor it to the bottom with a few concealed blades of saw-grass, in a little open bay, leaving 

 its circumference entirely free) remove a mass of wet muck from its rounded top and you expose seven or 

 eight soiled brownish-white eggs, resting in a depi*ession the bottom of which is less than an inch from 

 the water; the whole mass is constantly damp. This is the nest of the Dabchick, who is out foraging 

 in the marsh, or perhaps is anxiously watching us from some safe cover near by. 



"The anchoring blades of coarse saw-grass or flags, being always longer than is necessary to reach 

 the bottom, permit of considerable lateral and vertical movement of the nest, and so effectually provide 

 against drowning of the eggs by any ordinary rise in the water-level such as frequently occurs during 



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