796 
SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— PYGOPODES. 
850. P. a. calif or'nicus. American Eared GtREbe. Adult, breeding plumage : Bill shorter 
than head, rather stout at base, much depressed, broader than high at the nostrils, tip acute, 
not decurved, gonys straight, ascending, culmen a little concave basally, nearly straight termi- 
nally. Tarsus about equal to middle toe without its claw. Bill entirely black. Feet dull 
olivaceous, blackish outside and on sole. Eye scarlet. Eyelid orange. Conspicuous long 
auricular tufts, golden-brown or tawny, finely displayed upon a black ground. Crown, chin, 
and neck all round, black. All the primaries entirely chocolate-brown, with usually a wash 
of dull reddish-brown externally. Secondaries white, but the bases of all, and a considerable 
part of the two outer ones, dusky ; their shafts mostly all dusky. Sides deep purplish-brown 
or wine-red ; this color washed across the breast, behind the black of the neck, and also across 
the anal region. Under parts silky-white, the abdomen grayish. Young : Bill shaped gener- 
ally as in the adult, but smaller, with less firm outlines, so that its distinctive shape is some- 
what obscured. Little or no trace of the auricular tufts. Crown, sides of head, and neck all 
around, sooty-grayish, paler and more ashy on the foreneck. Upper parts rather lighter and 
duller colored than in the adults. Primaries as in the adults, but without the reddish tinge ; 
a few of the innermost ones sometimes white-tipped. Sides under the wings washed with a 
lighter shade of the color of the back ; lower belly grayish. Dimensions : length 12 to 14 
inches, usually 13 or less; extent 21.50-21.00; wing 4.75-5.25 ; bill 1.00 or less; along 
gape 1.25; height at nostril 0.22; width there 0.2G ; tarsus 1.60; middle toe and claw 1.95. 
While the breeding plumages of P. cornntus and the present species are widely different, 
there is much similarity between the young and winter dress of the two species. As a rule, 
auritus is smaller ; even traces of ruflfs are less appreciable ; the fore neck is scarcely lighter 
than the hind neck ; the back is rather deeper colored and more uniform. The shape and pro- 
portions of the bill, however, furnish the most reliable characters. Western N. Am., the com- 
monest species of grebe breeding in the pools west of the Mississippi ; E. to Illinois. Eggs 
not distinguishable from those of P. cornutus. 
851. P. domi'nicus. (Of St. Domingo.) St. Domingo Grebe. Eepresenting a genus or subgenus 
apart from the foregoing (Tachyhaptes). Bill very short, much less than the head, scarcely 
over half the tarsus ; stout, little compressed, rather obtuse. Lateral outlines nearly straight ; 
culmen slightly concave at the nostrils, elsewhere convex ; commissure straight, except a little 
sinuation at base; under outline straight to angle, gonys thence straight to tip, the angle 
well defined. Wings short, and with abrupt attenuation of the outer primaries. Tarsus 
stout, little over three-fourths the middle toe and claw ; outer lateral about equal to the mid- 
dle toe. Size very small ; body full; neck short; no decided crests or rufis. Adult: CroMm 
and occiput deep glossy steel-blue. Sides of head and neck all around dark ashy-gray, darkest 
behind, where tinged with bluish. Chin varied with ashy and white. Upper parts brownish- 
black, with glossy-greenish reflections. Primaries chocolate -brown, the greater portion of the 
inner vanes of all, and nearly all of the inner four or five, together with all the secondaries, 
pure white. ' Under parts silky-white, thickly mottled with dusky. Upper mandible dusky, 
the lower mostly yellowish. Dimensions: length about 9.50; extent 16.00; wing 3.60; bill 
along culmen 0.70; along gape 1.00; tarsus 1.25; middle toe and claw 1-75. Warmer parts 
of America, N. to the Eio Grande of Texas. 
336. PODILY3I'BUS. (Podicipes-\-Colymhus.) Thick-billed Grebes. Bill shorter than 
head, stoutest in the family, compressed, with obtuse and hooked tip ; culmen about straight 
to the nostrils, thence declinato-convex ; gonys regularly convex without decided angle; com- 
missure slightly sinuate at base, then straight, then much deflected. Upper mandible covered 
with soft skin to the nostrils, between which are two fossfe, the anterior shallow, oblong, the 
other deep, triangular, separated from the bare loral spate by an intervening ridge. Nostrils 
broadly oval, far anterior. No crests or ruffs, but shafts of frontal feathers prolonged into 
bristles. Eyelids peculiarly thickened. Outer three or four primaries abruptly sinuate near 
