ZOOLOGY. 243 
; 
Earep Grese (Podiceps auritus var. Californicus Coues). Ina 
series of alkali lakes about thirty miles northwest of Ft. Garland, 
southern Colorado, I found this species common and breeding. A 
colony of perhaps a dozen pairs had established themselves in a 
small pond of about four or five acres in extent. In the middle 
of this, in a bed of reeds, were found upward of a dozen nests. 
These, in each case, merely consisted of a slightly hollowed pile 
of decaying weeds and rushes, four or five inches in diameter, and 
scarcely raised above the surface of the water, upon which they 
floated. In a number of instances they were but a few feet .dis- 
tant from the nests of the coot (Fulica Americana) which abounded. 
Every grebe’s nest discovered contained three eggs, which in most 
instances were fresh; but in some nests were considerably ad- 
vanced. These vary but little in shape, are considerably elongated, © 
one end being slightly more pointed than the other. They vary 
in length from 1-70 to 1-80 and in breadth from 1°18 to 1:33. The 
color is a faint yellowish white, usually much stained from contact 
with the nest. The texture is generally quite smooth, in some 
roughened by a chalky deposit. The eggs were wholly concealed 
from view by a pile of weeds and other vegetable material laid 
across. That they were thus carefully covered, merely for con- 
_ Cealment, I cannot think, since in the isolated position. in which 
_ these nests are usually found, the bird has no enemy against which 
such precaution would avail. On first approaching the locality 
_ the grebes were all congregated at the further end of the pond, 
and shortly betook themselves through an opening to the neigh- 
bouring slough ; nor so far as I could ascertain did they again ap- 
proach the nests during my stay of three days. Is it not then 
possible that they are more or less dependent for the hatching of 
their eggs, upon ‘the artificial heat induced by the decaying vege- 
: table substances of which the nests are wholly composed ?—H. W. 
 -Heysnaw. 
_ Occurrence or TELEA POLYPHEMUS IN CALIFoRNIA.— A COR- 
RECTION. —On p. 454, vol. vii, of this journal, and on p. 15 of the 
“Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,” xvi, I 
State that Telea polyphemus, the American silk worm, does not oc- 
Cur in the Pacific states. It seems that Mr. Henry Edwards, in an 
Interesting paper published in the “Proceedings of the California 
Academy of Sciences” (received Dec. 11, after my second paper 
