LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING 
BIRDS, ORDER PYGOPODES. 
By Arruur Cieveranp Bent, 
of Taunton, Massachusetts. 
Family COLYMBIDA:. Grebes. 
4ECHMOPHORUS OCCIDENTALIS (Lawrence). 
WESTERN GREBE. 
HABITS, 
Where the sweet waters of Bear Creek empty into Crane Lake 
the bare shores of a somewhat alkaline lake are transformed into a 
verdant slough. of tall waving. bulrushes surrounding a’small grassy 
island overgrown with scattering patches of wild rose bushes, a green 
oasis of luxuriant vegetation in the waste of bare rolling plains of 
southwestern Saskatchewan. Here is the gem of all that wonderful 
bird country, the center of abundance of breeding wildfow]; at least 
such was the case in 1905 when we found 25 species of water birds 
nesting in great profusion within an area less than a mile square, 
as if all had been crowded together in the most favorable locality. 
On the island we found 61 ducks’ nests in a few hours’ search, repre- 
senting 8 species; and in the slough surrounding it canvasbacks, red- 
heads, and ruddy ducks were nesting among the bulrushes and cat- 
tails. Numerous noisy shore birds were flying about, avocets, kill- 
deers, long-billed curlews, and, marbled godwits. Overhead were 
floating the characteristic gulls of the region, California and ring- 
billed gulls, common terns, and the beautiful rosy breasted Franklin’s 
gulls. But it was in the slough itself, amid the constant din of 
countless yellow-headed blackbirds, that we found the subject of this 
sketch with a few of its lesser brethren, the eared and the horned 
grebes, seeking seclusion in the winding aisles. of water among the 
tallest bulrushes and cat-tails. I shall never forget the picture, as I 
stood in water more than waist deep, of one of these beautiful “swan 
grebes” sailing out from a dense wall of cat-tails, causing scarcely 
a ripple as it glided along, the body submerged, the long white neck 
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