32 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
are white, becoming dusky on the sides and tinged with pinkish buff 
on the breast and throat. The young birds are nearly fully grown 
before the first winter plumage is acquired, which appears first on 
the breast and last on the neck and rump. Young birds in the fall 
look very much like the horned grebe in corresponding plumage, but 
they are somewhat smaller, with smaller and slenderer heads and 
necks, and the shape of the bills is different and characteristic of the 
species. The first winter plumage of the eared grebe, dark above 
and white below, is similar to the adult winter plumage, but the 
black of the back is browner and the colors of the head are duller 
and less distinctly outlined; the bill is also smaller and not so clearly 
defined in shape. A first prenuptial molt takes place in April and 
May, which involves nearly all, if not all, the contour feathers and 
produces a plumage closely resembling that of the adult. At the 
first post-nuptial molt, the following summer, the plumage is com- 
pletely renewed and young birds become indistinguishable from 
adults at an age of 14 and 15 months. 
Adults have two molts, a partial prenuptial molt, involving the 
head and neck and, at least part, if not all of the body plumage, 
which begins in December, and a complete post-nuptial molt in 
August and September. Thus it will be seen that the winter plum- 
age, or perhaps it should be called the fall plumage, is worn but 
three or four months in the fall. Individuals vary greatly in the 
times at which this plumage is acquired and replaced. Adults in the 
fall have white throats, have less brown in the sides and have only 
traces of the yellowish brown ear tufts; but they can be recognized 
by the size and shape of the bills and by the darker backs and heads; 
many birds also have more or less black in the throats during the 
fall. The prenuptial molt into the adult spring plumage is some- 
times prolonged into May but is usually completed by May 1. 
Food.—The food of the eared grebe consists principally of water 
insects and their larvae, beetles, tadpoles, very small frogs and 
shrimps, all of which it obtains by diving; it also feeds to some ex- 
tent on various water plants;.and feathers, presumably from its own 
body are often found in its stomach. Dr. T. S. Roberts (1900) says: 
The stomachs and gullets of several birds collected by the writer and kindly 
examined by Professor Beal, of the Biological Survey at Washington, con- 
tained a mass of insect débris to the exclusion of all else. One stomach alone 
furnished some 15 different species, among them several varieties injurious to 
the interests of man. The chief part of the food, however, during the time 
of our visit to the colony, and that on which the young were largely fed, was 
the nymphs of dragon flies which were then to be found in immense numbers 
in the meadows near by. The writer counted no less than 327 of these insects 
in a single stomach. 
Behavior—tThe eared grebe is seldom seen in flight, except on 
migrations, for the bird seems reluctant to leave the water and pre- 
