The Holboell Grebe 



No. 421 



Holbcell's Grebe 



A. O. U. No. 2. Colymbus grisegena holboelli (Reinhardt). 



Description. — Adult in nuptial plumage: Head and short dense occipital 

 crest, heaviest on sides and squarely cut off behind; top of head, including crest, ridge 

 of neck behind, and upperparts, very deep hair-brown, or brownish black with a silky 

 sheen, pure on head and neck and wings, with slight edgings of dull buffy and ochraceous 

 on back; primaries not different; a large white patch on central secondaries (recalling 

 the speculum of ducks); throat and sides of head pale ashy gray, becoming white on 

 borders; neck in front and on sides bright cinnamon-rufous, shading on fore-breast 

 into the silvery ashy of remaining underparts; posterior feathers dusky-tinged; bill 

 bluish dusky, varied by yellow on lower mandible; feet and legs black. Adult in winter 

 and immature: Similar but duller; throat and sides of head pure white; the rufous 

 of neck replaced by ashy-brown; not crested. Bill lighter; feet and legs (of immature) 

 mottled with yellow. Length 457.2-508 (18.00-20.00); wing 195.6 (7.70); bill 48.3 

 (1.90); tarsus 63.5 (2.50). 



Recognition Marks. — Something under Mallard size (owing to abbreviated 

 tail), but appearing larger, nearer Brant size; rufous of neck, when present, distinctive; 

 stouter, chunkier proportions; neck ashy in front (in winter), and shorter, heavier 

 bill, as compared with Western Grebe. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A heap of half-submerged or 

 floating vegetation in pond or reedy lake margin. Eggs: 2 to 5; dull greenish white, 

 except when fresh heavily nest-stained. Av. size 53.7 x 34.5 [2. 11 x 1.36] (Bent). 

 Index 64.2. Season: c. May 20; one brood. 



Range of Colymbus grisegena. — Northern and sub-Arctic portions of the Northern 

 Hemisphere. Breeds north to southern Greenland, Europe, and Kamchatka; south 

 in winter to northern Africa and Japan. In America as follows: 



Range of C. g. holboelli. — North America and northeastern Asia. Breeds from 

 northern Ungava, northern Mackenzie, and northwestern Alaska, south to New Bruns- 

 wick, central western Minnesota, northern Montana, and northern Washington; 

 winters south, chiefly coastwise, from southern British Columbia to southern California, 

 and from Maine to North Carolina, or even to Georgia. In the interior to southern 

 Colorado and the Ohio Valley. 



Distribution in California. — Not common winter resident and migrant, 

 chiefly along the seacoast. Occasional at Santa Barbara, but not recorded from any 

 of the Channel Islands. Interior record stations include Lake Tahoe (Belding), and 

 Elsinore Lake (Nordhoff). 



Authorities. — Heermann (Podiceps cristatus), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. x. , 

 1859, p. 76 (Santa Barbara) ; Grinnell, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. I, 1900, p. 4 (desc. 

 breeding habits, nest and eggs; northern Alaska); Beck, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 4, 

 vol. iii., 1910, p. 58 (Monterey); Willett, Pac. Coast Avifauna, no. 7, 1912, p. 9 (occur- 

 rence in s. Calif.). 



OUR CHIEF interest in this rare winter visitor must lie in its points 

 of resemblance to and difference from our common species of diving 

 birds. Is it a grebe or is it a loon? is the question we ask concerning the 



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