PODICIPEDIDjE : GREBES. 
795 
primaries uniform chocolate-brown, the shafts of the latter black. Secondaries white, mostly 
with black shafts and brownish tips. Lining of wings and axillars white. A broad patch 
of silvery-ash on the throat, extending around on sides of head, whitening along line of 
juncture with the black of the crown. Neck, except the dorsal line, deep brownish-red, which 
extends diluted some distance on the breast. Under parts silky-white, with a shade of silvery- 
ash, each feather having a dark shaft-line and terminal spot, producing a peculiar dappled 
appearance. Winter plumage, and young : Crests scarcely appreciable. Bill mostly yellow- 
ish, the ridge more or less dusky. Red of the neck replaced by brownish-ash of variable 
shade, from quite dark to whitish. Ash of throat and sides of head replaced by pure white. 
Under parts ashy-white, the mottling not so conspicuous as in summer. Dimensions : Length 
about 19.00; extent 32.00; wing 7.60; bill along culmen 1.90-2.40, along gape 2.40-3.10 ; 
height at nostrils 0.55; tarsus 2.50; middle toe and claw 2.85. This bird could only be 
confounded with cristatus in immature dress : it is smaller, stouter, more thick-set, with 
stouter bill, nebulated under plumage, less white on the wing, and usually has rather shorter 
tarsi, — only about four-fifths the middle toe and claw, instead of about equal to the middle toe 
alone, as in cristatus. The American bird is a larger variety of the European, the bill, 
especially, disproportionately longer, differently shaped and colored ; tarsus longer, both 
absolutely and relatively to length of toes. N. Am. at large and Greenland; common in 
the U. S. in winter, breeding northerly. Eggs 2.10 to 2.35 X 1-25 to 1.45, rough, whitish, 
either inclining to pale greenish or with buffy discoloration, of the narrow-elongate shape 
usual in this family. 
Obs. Specimens more like the typical griseigena from the N. W. coast. 
848. P. cornu'tus. (Lat. cornutus, horned.) Horned GtREBE. Adult, breeding plumage : 
Bill black, tipped with yellow. Feet dusky externally, internally yellowish. Iris carmine, 
with a fine white ring. A brownish-yellow stripe over eye, widening behind and deepening 
in color at the ends of the long crests, and being dark chestnut between eye and bill. Crown, 
chin, and the very full ruff glossy greenish-black. Upper parts brownish -black, with paler 
edges of the feathers. Primaries rather light chocolate-brown, with black shafts, except at 
the base. Secondaries white. Neck all round, except stripe down behind, and sides of the 
body, rich dark brownish-red or purplish wine-red, mixed with dusky on the fianks. Under 
parts pure silky- white. Winter plumage, and young: Bill dusky, much of the under 
mandible bluish or yellowish -white. Indications of crests and ruff in the length and fulness 
of the feathers of the parts. Crown and neck behind, and sides of the body, sooty-blackish. 
Other upper parts and the wings as in the adult. Chin, throat, and sides of head, pure white, 
this color nearly encircling the nape. Neck in front and lower belly lightly washed with 
ashy-gray. Under parts as before. Newly-fledged young are curiously striped on the head 
with rufous, dusky, and white. Dimensions : length about 14.00 inches ; extent 24.00 ; 
wing 5.75'; tarsus 1.75; middle toe and claw 2.10 ; bill along culmen about 0.90, along gape 
1.30; its height at the nostrils 0.30, its vridth there 0.25. Bill compressed, tapering, with 
considerably curved culmen, — quite different from the broad depressed bill with straight tip 
and much ascending gonys of P. auritus. It varies much in size, even among equally adult 
examples; in the young it is always smaller and weaker than in the old. Black, yellow- 
tipped in the old, we find it variously lighter in the young, — usually dusky on the ridge, 
elsewhere tinged with olivaceous, yellowish, or even orange or extensively bluish-white. 
In breeding plumage this bird is conspicuously different from any other ; but the young are 
much like those of P. auritus, requiring careful discrimination. N. Am. at large, abundant, 
and generally diffused. Eggs laid on soaking or floating beds of decayed reeds, white or 
slightly shaded, elliptical, 1.70 X 1.20. 
849. P. auri'tus. (Lat. auritus, eared.) European Eared Grebe. Like the next to be de- 
scribed, excepting more white on the wing ; inner four primaries entirely white, all the rest 
more or less white, secondaries all entirely white. Only N. Am. as occurring in Greenland (f). 
