PODIVIPEDIDJE : GREBES. 795 



primaries uniform cliocolate-brown, the shafts of the latter black. Secondaries white, mostly 

 with black sliafts and brownish tips. Lining of wings and axillars wliite. A broad patch 

 of silvery-ash on the throat, extending arc^uud on sides of head, whitening along line of 

 juncture with the black of the crow^n. Neck, except tlie dorsal line, deep brownisli-red, which 

 e.-vtends diluted some distance on the breast. Under parts silky-white, with a sliade of silvery- 

 ash, each feather having a dark shaft-line and terminal spot, producing a peciihar dappled 

 ajipearance. Winter plumage, and young: Crests scarcely appreciable. Bill mostly yellow- 

 ish, the ridge more or less dusky. Bed of the neck replaced by brownish-ash of variable 

 shade, from quite dark to whitish. Ash of throat and sides of head rejdaced by pure white. 

 Under parts asliy-white, the mottling not so conspicuous as in sunnner. Dimensions : Length 

 about 19.00; extent 32.00; wing 7.60; bill along culmen 1.90-2.40, along gape 2.40-3.10 ; 

 height at nostrils 0.55; tarsus 2.50; middle toe and claw 2.85. This bird could only be 

 confounded with cristatus in immature dress : it is smaller, stouter, more thick-set, with 

 stouter bill, nebulated under plumage, loss white on the wing, and usually has rather shorter 

 tarsi, — only about four-fifths the middle toe and claw, instead of about equal to the middle toe 

 alone, as in cristatus. The American bird is a larger variety of the European, the bill, 

 especially, disproportionately longer, differently shaped and colored ; tarsus longer, both 

 absolutely and relatively to length of toes. N. Am. at large and Greenland ; common iu 

 the U. S. in winter, breeding northerly. Eggs 2.10 to 2.35 X 1-25 to 1.45, rough, whitish, 

 either inclining to pale greenish or with buffy discoloration, of the narrow- elongate shape 

 usual in this family. 



Obs. Specimens more like the typical griseigena from the N. W. coast. 



848, P. cornu'tus. (Lat. cornutus, horned.) Horned Grebe. Adult, breeding plumage: 

 Bill black, tipped wdth yellow. Feet dusky externally, internally yellowish. Iris carmine, 

 with a fine wdiite ring. A brownish-yellow stripe over eye, widening behind and deepening 

 in color at the ends of the long crests, and being dark chestnut between eye and bill. Crown, 

 chin, and the very full ruff glossy greenish-black. Upper parts brownish-black, with paler 

 edges of the feathers. Primaries rather light chocolate-brown, with black shafts, except at 

 the ijase. Secondaries white. Neck all round, except stripe Aovra behind, and sides (if the 

 body, rich dark brownish-red or purplish wine-red, mixed with dusky on the flanks. Under 

 parts pure silky- white. Winter plumage, and young: Bill dusky, mucli of the under 

 mandible bluish or yellowish-white. Indications of crests and ruff in the length and fulness 

 of the feathers of the parts. Crown and neck behind, and sides of the body, sooty-blackish. 

 Other upper parts and the wings as in the adult. Chin, throat, and sides of head, pure white, 

 this color nearly encircling the nape. Neck in front and lower belly lightly washed with 

 ashy-gray. Under parts as before. Newly-fledged young are curiously striped on the head 

 with rufous, dusky, and white. Dimensions : length about 14.00 inches ; extent 24.00 ; 

 wing 5-75 ; tarsus 1.75; middle toe and claw 2.10 ; bill along culmen about 0.90, along gape 

 ].30; its height at the nostrils 0.30, its width there 0.25. Bill compressed, tapering, with 

 considerably curved culmen, — quite different from the broad depressed hill witli straight tip 

 and much ascending gonys of P. auritus. It varies much in size, even among equally adult 

 examples; in the young it is always smaller and weaker than in the old. Black, yellow- 

 tipped in the old, we find it variously lighter in the young, — usually dusky on the ridge, 

 elsewhere tinged with olivaceous, yellowish, or even orange or extensively bluish-white. 

 In breeding plumage this bird is conspicuously different from any other ; but the young are 

 much like those of P. miritus, requiring careful discrimination. N. Am. at large, abundant, 

 and generally dift'used. Eggs laid on soaking or floating beds of decayed reeds, white or 

 slightly shaded, elliptical, 1.70 X 1.20. 



849. P. auri'tus. (Lat. attritus, eared.) European Eared Grebe. Like the next to be de- 

 scribed, excepting more white on the wing ; inner four primaries entirely white, all the rest 

 more or less white, secondaries all entirely white. Only N. Am. as occurring in Greenland (f). 



