NESTS AND EGGS 



;of; 



North American Birds. 



NOTE.— The noaienclature folio-wed in the present edition of this work is that of the 

 American Ornithologists' Union Cheolt-Liist.* The measurements of the eggs are given in 

 Inches and' hundredths, except iri cases where correspondents have furnished the 

 measurements in millimeters. These will be found reduced to inches and litindredths in 

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



1. WHSTEEN GUEEB. . 2Eohmophorus oooideiUalis (Lawr.) Geographic Dis- 

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

 Call'omia to Manitoba. 



1'his 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 Red River Region on the north, breeding nearly throughout this entire range. 

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

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

 where it breeds abundantly. 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 an area of an acre and a half. They were built in water three or four feet 

 deep, and were made of reeds and sedges matted together and fastened to the tall, 

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

 cover their nests with weeds and other vegetable matter before leaving them, no 

 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 

 oU the nests, said leave the eggs exposed. The only birds seen were those in the 



* Ctieclc-l!«it 9f !•'■"-*?» American Birds, prepared by a Committee of the American 

 Ornithologists' anion; ascend revised edition, JSSS. Hew. Torls, L. S. Foster, Publisher, 

 36 Pine street. 



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