THE GREBES, OR LOBE-FOOTED DIVERS 



(Family Podicipidce) 



Holboell's Grebe 



(Colymbus holhoellii) 



Called also: RED-NECKED GREBE 



Length — About 19 inches. Largest of the common grebes. 



Male and Female — In summer: Upper parts dusky; top of head, 

 small crest, and nape of neck glossy black ; throat and cheeks 

 ashy ; neck rich chestnut red, changing gradually over the 

 smooth, satiny breast to silvery vi'hite or gray dappled under 

 parts; sides also show chestnut tinge. In winter: Crests 

 scarcely perceptible ; upper parts blackish brov^'n ; ashy tint 

 of cheeks and throat replaced by pure white; under parts 

 ashy, the mottling less conspicuous than in summer. Red 

 of neck replaced by variable shades of reddish brown, from 

 quite dark to nearly white. Elongated toes furnished with 

 broad lobes of skin. 



Young — Upper parts blackish; neck and sides grayish; throat and 

 under parts silvery white. Head marked with stripes. 



Range — Interior of North America from Great Slave Lake to South 

 Carolina and Nebraska. Breeds from Minnesota northward, 

 and migrates southward in winter. 



Season — Irregular migrant and winter visitor. 



The American, red-necked grebe, a larger variety of the 

 European species, keeps so closely within the lines of family 

 traditions that a description of it might very well serve as a com- 

 posite portrait of its clan. Six members of this cosmopolitan 

 family, numbering in all about thirty species, are found in North 

 America ; the others are distributed over the lakes and rivers of 

 all parts of the world that are neither excessively hot nor cold. 



On the border of some reedy pond or sluggish stream, in a 

 floating mass of water-soaked, decaying vegetation that serves as 

 a nest, the red-necked grebe emerges from its dull white egg and 



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