The Horned Grebe 



nondescript object which the recurring swells bring into intermittent 

 view just inside the kelp-line. For stoutness of bill and sturdiness of neck 

 the bird is very loon-like, but its body lacks somehow the regal outlines 

 of the clipper-built Gavias. It is squatty, lumpish, ill-defined, instead. 

 Holboell's Grebe is a pleb. Compared with its cousin, the Western 

 Grebe, this bird is notably shorter and stouter both as to bill and neck, 

 and it does not present so fierce an appearance, even though still boasting 

 the carmine eye. The neck, also, is never so pure a white in front, and 

 it usually retains a dull rufous wash which further serves for distinction. 

 When you have decided that the je ne sais quoi may be a grebe, it 

 prepares for diving by first giving a little upward spring, and then turns 

 suddenly, with the body almost clear of the water, and shoots down, head 

 foremost. Holbcelli is, however, quite as able as others of the family to 

 flash out of sight without the spring-board motion, or else to fade away 

 after the manner of the polite Frenchman. Once, upon a piece of inland 

 water, I sighted one of these birds at not over thirty yards. Really de- 

 sirous of securing a specimen for the cabinet, I shot, using duck shot and 

 an extra rapid smokeless powder. The fellow was possessed — not only by 

 "spirits," but by an inexhaustible fund of good nature, for every time I 

 shot he vanished, I know not how, only to reappear instantly, unscathed 

 and smiling, to paddle a little nearer. 



No. 422 



Horned Grebe 



A. O. U. No. 3. Colymbus auritus Linnaeus. 



Description. — Adult in nuptial plumage: Forehead and crown, with throat 

 and sides of head around on nape, sooty black, deepening and becoming glossy pos- 

 teriorly; area included by these patches (lores and sides of crown) buffy ochraceous, 

 changing to rufous on lores and the short dense occipital crest; neck in front and on 

 sides and fore-breast rich cinnamon-rufous, shading on breast into the satiny white 

 of belly; sides (well up under wing) and flank patches tinged with rufous and overlaid 

 with some dusky; upperparts grayish black, becoming grayish brown on wings and 

 varied by some edging of lighter grayish brown; primaries clear light brown; secondaries 

 mostly white, forming a quasi speculum. Bill black with yellow on lower mandible 

 and tip; feet dusky externally, internally mostly yellow. Adult in winter and imma- 

 ture: No rufous anywhere; above uniform grayish black; below, including sides of 

 head, pure white, sometimes tinged on neck and fore-breast with ashy brown; spar- 

 ingly dusky-shaded on sides; bill with less black. Length 317. 5-381 (12.50-15.00); 

 wing 130.4 (5.37); bill 23.6 (.93); depth at base 8.1 (.32); tarsus 46.2 (1.82). 



Recognition Marks. — Teal size; breeding plumage with black and red on 

 head (especially red lores) distinctive for size; slender bill; the pure white of throat and 



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