PIED-BILLED GREBE. 



LITTLE GREBE. DABCHICK. CAROLINA GREBE. 

 PODILYMBUS PODICEPS. 



Char. Upper parts dusky, wings varied with ashy and white; undei- 

 parts silvery white, mottled with dusky ; breast washed with rufous ; chin 

 and throat black; bill short and thick, of a bluish white color, with a black 

 band across the centre. Length about 14 inches. 



Nest. Amid the rushes at the edge of a pond or sluggish stream, — 

 made of coarse herbage lined with grass ; sometimes floating on the water, 

 fastened to reeds. 



Eggs. 4-10 (usually 5) ; white stained with pale brown ; 2.00 X 1.70. 



The Pied-billed Dabchick is an exclusive inhabitant of the 

 North American continent, proceeding north to breed as far 

 as the remote fur countries of Upper Canada, a specimen hav- 

 ing been killed on Great Slave Lake by the exploring party 

 of Captain Franklin. It arrives in the Northern and Middle 

 States about the close of August, and is then seen residing in 

 our small freshwater lakes until the approach of winter, when 

 it retires probably as far south as the lagoons of the Missis- 

 sippi and the tidewater streams and bays of the Mexican 

 Gulf. It is the most common species in the Union, and is 

 met with in all the States as far as Florida, leaving those coun- 



