4 BULLETIN 119, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
FEATHER EATING. 
All of our species of grebes have the peculiar habit of eating 
quantities of their own feathers, masses of which were found in 
practically every stomach opened. This fact has been recognized 
' by naturalists for many years, though in numerous instances the 
feather remains have been mistaken for miscellaneous substances, 
ranging from the hair of mammals to silky vegetable fibers. Why 
these feathers are eaten and what part they may play in the economy 
of the bird are points on which we have no definite knowledge. The 
feathered covering of grebes is dense and abundant, and the writer 
on various occasions has observed the birds preening and arranging 
their plumage. Feathers loosened during this process are sometimes 
discarded and sometimes dabbled in the water, to be moistened and 
then swallowed. 
The stomach of the grebe has a small accessory chamber (a 
pyloric lobe) in which the opening into the small intestine is found. 
This lobe is almost invariably plugged with a ball of feathers, even 
though feathers are absent in the main chamber. 
It is noticed that feathers occur in greatest abundance and most 
commonly in stomachs containing remains of fishes and hard-bodied 
insects, and that they are less abundant (or are even occasionally 
absent) in gizzards containing soft-bodied larvae or crustaceans 
that are easy of digestion and assimilation. It may be suggested 
that the feathers act as a strainer to prevent the passage of fish 
bones or large fragments of chitin into the intestine until they 
have been reduced to a proper size and condition by the process of 
digestion. In this way injury to the intestinal walls from these 
hard fragments may be avoided. 
Whatever the use of feathers, they can not be held to have any 
considerable food value, even though they are constantly ground 
up and passed on into the intestinal tract. In the accounts of the 
individual species, therefore, though the presence of feathers in these 
stomachs has in each case been estimated as a matter of interest, 
this item has been discarded before the actual food content is ap- 
portioned on the basis of 100 per cent. 
PROTECTED STATUS. 
Prior to 1903 many thousands of grebes were killed by hunters 
for the sake of their beautiful breast feathers, which attracted atten- 
tion in commerce. The western grebe especially suffered heavily 
from the whim of feminine fashion, as this species, like the eared 
grebe, congregated in large colonies during the breeding season. 
Held to one locality by the instinct that drew them to their nests 
and young, the birds were slaughtered in these colonies with ease 
until their numbers were greatly reduced. One hunter in Oregon told 
of killing 135 grebes on one occasion, and on the large shallow lakes 
in the Great Basin region many thousands in all were shot for their 
skins. Fortunately, in 1903 the market for grebe skins was closed, 
and slaughter by professional hunters practically ceased. With in- 
creased protection during recent years the birds have regained some- 
thing of their former abundance. | 
A serious factor affecting grebes, as well as many other species 
of water birds, is the reclamation of extensive marshes and shallow 
