728 PODIOEPS OCCIDENTALIS, WESTERN GEEBE. 



the Podiceps cornuttis, are very common ou Ptiget Sound. They are 

 rather more rare during the summer months than in the autumn and 

 winter. During the latter seasons they may almost always be found- 

 two, rarely more, in company — coasting near the shore, diving rapidly in 

 search of food. When desirous of descending beneath the water, they 

 seem to raise themselves partially from the surface, and describing, as 

 they descend, almost a perfect arc of a circle. Few birds are more 

 graceful on the water than these interesting species ; and it has afforded 

 us many moments of real enjoyment to watch them gliding rapidly and 

 smoothly over its surface, or performing in rapid succession their grace- 

 ful curves as they disappear beneath its surface. They do not often take 

 to wing, relying more on their powers of swimming and diving as a 

 means of escape from enemies ; when they do flj', they rise very awk- 

 wardly from the water, often for a long distaiuce dragging their dangling 

 legs before they succeed, and often, under such circumstances, abandon- 

 ing the effort, they stop and suddenly disappear beneath the surface. 

 They follow up the streams emptying into tiie Sound for long distances, 

 niatiy of them, spending their summer ou the lakes far inland, iu the 

 neighborhood of which they probably breed with the Large Loon (G. 

 torquahis). I have often seen large flocks of them on Chiloweyuck Lake 

 from August to September, and perhaps later." 



Yar. CLARKii: Clarice's Grebe. 



Bill about as loug as the head, shorter than the tarsus, slightly recurved, extremely 

 slender and acute ; the culmen a little concave, the under outline almost one unbroken 

 curve from base to tip. 



Adult lit breeding plumage. — Under mandible, and tip and cutting edges of the upper, 

 chrome-yellow, in marked contrast to the black of the culmen. Loral bare strip leaden- 

 blue. Crown, occiput, and hind neck deep grayish-black ; almost pure black ou the 

 hind head, fading gradually along the neck into the lighter blackish-gray of the upper 

 parts generally. Lores broadly pure white, as are tbe entire under parts, with a sbarp 

 line of demarcation along the sides of. the bead and neck. A decided occipital crest, 

 the feathers about an inch long and quite filiform, but not colored apart from the gen- 

 eral coloration. No decided ruffs — no colored ruJfa at all ; but the white feathers of 

 the sides of the head behind and across the throat are longer and fuller than else- 

 where — about as in griseigena. Wings and general coloration (except the white lores) 

 exactly as iu var. occklentalis. 



Winter dress not materially different from the foregoing. 



Dimensions. — Length, about 22 inches ; extent, 28.50 ; wing, 7 ; bill along culmen, 

 2.30 ; along gape, 2.75 ; height at nostrils, 0.40 ; tarsus, and middle toe Avith claw, 

 each, about 2.75. 



With only extremes before us of the two varieties, one might well consider them 

 distinct species; but other specimens show the intergradation. Thus, Nos. 9344 and 

 9938, especially the latter, differ from typical clark'.i in stouter and less recurved as 

 well as darker-colored bill, the culmen not obviously concave, and the under outline 

 not regularly curved. The loral sijace has an ashy tinge in the white. The general 

 dimensions are those of clarkii. In size the two varieties inosculate at about two feet 

 of totallength. ^ 



In examining more extensive material than 1 formerly possessed, lack of specific dis- 

 tiuction between the two forms becomes still more obvious. Thus we freqnentlj' find 

 specimens as small as typical elarkii, and with equally slender bill, yet with the color 

 of the bill wholly olivaceous and the lores ashy, as in typical ociAdentaUs. 



Subgenus Podiceps, Lath. 



CriAK. Bill moderately stout, usually more or less compressed, equaling or shorter 

 than the head or tarsus. Tarsus obviously shorter tbau the middle toe and claw. 

 Outer lateral toe a little longer than the middle. Head iu the breeding season with 

 lengthened colored crests or ruffs, or both. (Including, among North American repre- 

 sentatives, Pedetaithi/ia, Lophaithyia, Dytes, Otodt/tes, and Proctopui.) 



Thus lestricting Podiceps to exclude, of American forms, the subgenera jHchmophorus 

 and Jacliybaptes, as well as the genus Podilymbus, we find that the four North American 

 representatives may be thus analyzed : 



