The Hawkeye Ornithologist and Oologist. 



39 



So he told them to assemble at a cer- 

 tain place and he would teach them 

 many beautiful games. He built an 

 immense wigwam, and at the ap- 

 pointed time all were there except 

 the grebes. He made fun of the 

 whole matter, and said he knew 

 tricks enough already. While the 

 Great Spirit was instructing the as- 

 semblage, the grebe danced in de- 

 rision before the door, and finally, 

 emboldened by the forbearance of 

 his master, ran into the room, and by 

 dancing on the fire, put it out and 

 filled the wigwam with smoke. The 

 patience of the Great Spirit could 

 stand it no longer, and giving the 

 grebe a kick, he exclaimed, "Deform- 

 ed shalt thou go through this world 

 for the rest of thy days!" The im- 

 iraperial foot struck him just at the 

 base of the tail. It knocked the 

 body forward, but the legs remained 

 behind, and the grebe has ever since 

 had the legs set so far back on the 

 body that it cannot walk." 



The smallest of our North Ameri 

 can grebes is C. dominicus, or the St. 

 Domingo Grebe. It has a breeding 

 range extending from the valley of 

 the Rio Grande southward into the 

 tropical regions — nesting in the wild 

 herbage of the lakes and ponds of 

 Mexico and Central America, in 

 many of the islands of the West In- 

 dies, and the sloughs of the immense 

 level, tropical plains and pampas of 

 South America. 



Its entire life is spent in the water, 

 and it possesses the same aquatic 

 habits peculiar to all the grebes. Dr. 

 James C. Merrill first established the 

 claim of this species to our North 

 American fauna. He found it a rath- 

 er common resident in southwestern 

 Texas. On May 10, 1877, he found 

 several nests undoubtedly belonging 

 to this species in a salt marsh a few 

 miles from Fort Brown. "They were 

 made of water-plants and pieces of 



reeds slightly fastened to one or two 

 tule-stalks, and forming a wet, float- 

 ing mass." 



The eggs of the grebes range from 

 four to eight and nine in number; 

 their general shape is elliptical oval; 

 and they are whitish or greenish- 

 white in color, unspotted. On most 

 of the eggs there is a rough, chalky 

 substance over the entire surface. 

 The eggs usually becomes soiled or 

 stained by contact with the wet, de- 

 caying vegetable matter of the nests 

 — in fact many of them are so much 

 soiled that the ground color is totally 

 obscured. 



My experience with the grebes in 

 Ohio has developed the fact that 

 they are most always sure to be 

 found in company with the loon, Ur- 

 inaior imber, during the spring mi- 

 gration. In some quiet pool or 

 marsh, or on the surface of a swollen 

 river, they dwell harmoniously to- 

 gether; and it is often curious to hear 

 the hoarse cry of the loon answered 

 by the peculiar note of the dabchick. 



Standing on the bank of a river in 

 early spring, looking over a dreary 

 landscape with perhaps a channel of 

 floating ice in view, and lowering 

 clouds overhead to add gloom to a 

 scene yet wrapped in winter's garb, 

 one is almost startled to hear tha 

 wierd, long-drawn notes of some rest- 

 less loon as it utters its hoarse, re- 

 verberating cry to die away upon the 

 ear in a strange, echoing undertone 

 which is immediately followed by the 

 feeble, whistling note of the pied-bill 

 grebe. 



