NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



I 



DIVING BIRDS 



HORNED GREBE 



Dec. 26, 1853. Walden still open. Saw in it a small 

 diver, probably a grebe or dobchick, dipper, or what-not, 

 with the markings, as far as I saw, of the crested grebe, 

 but smaller. It had a black head, a white ring about its 

 neck, a white breast, black back, and apparently no tail. 1 

 It dove and swam a few rods under water, and, when on 

 the surface, kept turning round and round warily and 

 nodding its head the while. This being the only pond 

 hereabouts that is open. 



Sept. 27, 1860. Monroe's tame ducks sail along and 

 feed close to me as I am working there. Looking up, I 

 see a little dipper, about one half their size, in the mid- 

 dle of the river, evidently attracted by these tame ducks, 

 as to a place of security. I sit. down and watch it. The 

 tame ducks have paddled four or five rods down-stream 

 along the shore. They soon detect the dipper three 

 or four rods off, and betray alarm by a tittering note, 

 especially when it dives, as it does continually. At last, 

 when it is two or three rods off and approaching them 

 by diving, they all rush to the shore and come out on it 



1 [From the description it would appear to have been a horned grebe, 

 though the white on the throat and neck of that bird does not form a com- 

 plete ring. The bird of September, 1860, is more accurately described.] 



