NESTS AND EGGS 



I of; 



North American Birds. 



NOTE.— The nomeindattire follcwecl in the present edition of this work is that of tlie 

 American Ornithologists' Union Cheolc-List.* The measurements of the eggs are given in 

 inches and hundredths, except in cases where correspondents have furnished the 

 measurements In millimeters. . These will be found reduced to inches and hundredths In 

 foot notes, as appears in the text of the Western Grebe. 



1. WESTERN (JBEEE. JUclimophorits occideiitalis (Lawr.) Geographic Dis- 

 tribution. — ^^Western North America, chiefly the interior, from Mexico and Lower 

 Cali'ornia to Manitoba. 



IWs is the largest of the Grebes in North America. Its distribution' extends 

 from Mexico and Lower California on the south, to the State of , Washington and 

 the Bed River Region on the north, breeding nearly throughout this entire range. 

 A common summer resident at Utah Lake and also at Lake Malheur, in Eastern 

 Ofegon, thence eastward to the extensive marshes of Shoal Lake, in Manitoba, 

 ■where it breeds abundantlyi Mr. Edward Stebbins found it breeding in an arm of 

 Devils Lake, North Dakota, in the first part of June, at which time all the eggs were 

 more or less incubated. He estimates the number of nests observed to be about two 

 hundr'id in svn area of an acre and a half. They were built in water three or* four feet 

 deep, and wt-re made of reeds and sedges matted together and fastened to the tall, 

 rank grass, so as to float on the surface. It is a remarkable fact that the Grebes 

 cov6r their nests with weeds and other vegetable matter before leaving them, to 

 that incubation may continue during their absence. The Rev. P. B. Peabody ob- 

 served the Western Grebe nesting among the flags of Heron Lake, Minnesota, on June 

 2d; Only a few of the nests observed by Mr. Stebbins were covered; the tall grass 

 obstructed the view of the birds, so that when approached they would hurriedly slip 

 olf the nests, and leave the eggs es:posed. The only birds seen were those in the 



* Check-l!?t «f Mnvth American Birds, prepared by a Conimitte# of the American 

 Ornithologists' CJaion; second revised edition, 1895. Hew york, L. S. Foster, , Publisher, 

 35 Fine street. 



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