GREBES 



(6) Podilymbus podiceps 



{Linn.} (Lat., rump, foot). 



PIED-BILLED GREBE; DAB- 

 CHICK; DIPPER; HELL-DIVER. 

 Bill short, stout, compressed and 

 obtuse at the tip; in summer whitish 

 with a black band around the middle. 

 Ad. insummer — Assho\vn; notice the 

 black throat, the white eye-ring and 

 the absence of white on the wings. In 

 ■winter — Bill plain dusky; no eye- 

 ring; throat white. Juv. — Like the 

 winter adult but with more or less 

 conspicuous striping on the head. 

 L., 13.00; W., 5.10; Tar., 1.50; B., 

 .85. Eggs — Four to six, dull, soiled 

 white, 1.70 X .95. 



Range — Breeds throughout the 

 United States and southern Canada. 

 Winters from Va., Miss, and Wash, 

 southward. 



grebe wishes to move, she sits on her nest sticks out one foot 

 and paddles off to another location. While the truth of this 

 is to be doubted, it is a fact that the nests are so insecurely 

 attached to their supports that they are very commonly 

 blown about at the mercies of the winds. 



A full complement of eggs numbers from three to seven. 

 These are naturally of a dull white or slightly bluish color, 

 but continual contact with the wet mass upon which they 

 repose soon discolors them, those of the Least Grebe turning 

 to a deep saffron-brown shade. When a grebe leaves her 

 nest, she usually covers the eggs with some of the wet rushes, 

 either to conceal them from the gulls that often nest in the 

 same localities and which are very fond of them, or that the 

 steaming action of the sun on the wet mass may assist in 

 their incubation. 



Grebes are nidifugous; their young come from the eggs 

 covered with down, and the little ones leave the nest almost 

 immediately, swimming about after their mothers. 



