THE DABCHICK. 175 



marked with red about the head. In most species the color 

 of the plumage changes greatly with the season, and there 

 is a conspicuous rufi or ornament about the head of the 

 male in the breeding period. The plumage of the under 

 parts has a peculiar open structure and a satiny, lustrous 

 surface, inducing its use as fur. The nesting habits of the 

 family are similar throughout. 



The Dabchick is some 13.00 long. The bill, which is 

 shorter and thicker than that of most Grebes, is pale blue, 

 with a black ring around the part perforated by the nostril. 

 The upper parts are dark brown, the fore-neck reddish, belly 

 white, sides grayish; under the chin there is a black spot in 

 spring, the only distinguishing mark of the breeding season. 

 In the fall this last mark is wanting, and the young have 

 the throat white, streaked with dark. Late in the fall even 

 the young are much smaller than the parents. 



Having had my attention called to the breeding of this 

 species at St. Clair Flats by the communications in the 

 Oologist — now Ornithologist and Oologist — by Mr. W. 

 H. Collins, a distinguished taxidermist of Detroit, I gave 

 the matter a careful investigation when visiting that place 

 in the spring of 1882. The nest, built up from the bottom 

 in water from a foot to eighteen inches deep, to several 

 inches above the water, is a sort of pier, sheltered by sedges, 

 cat- tails and rushes; and though stationary as thus pro- 

 tected, is so nearly afloat that any considerable agitation of 

 the water will rock it to and fro. It is a carefully-laid pile 

 of soaked and decaying rushes of former years, and other 

 decaying matter from the bottom, with a good deal of the 

 larger fresh water algae mixed in. Cylindrical, some 

 18 inches in diameter, and symmetrically rounded at the 

 top, and having a slight depression for the eggs, it is the 

 wettest, dirtiest, nastiest thing to be conceived of in the way 



