November, 1902. [ 
THE CONDOR 
129 
attracted my attention was a piece of 
skin from the neck of a grebe. It was 
tacked upon the wall, showing the sil- 
very gray of the sides of the head, the 
glossy black of the median portion of 
the head, occiput, and hind neck, and 
the dull rufous of the remaining por- 
tions of the neck. Here was a find, 
tangible evidence of the presence of 
Colymbus holbcelli, promising an inter- 
esting outcome, and I lost no time in 
getting among the reeds of the sub- 
merged region. 
Frequently in the night there was 
wafted across the open water an out- 
burst of cries from the uneasy colonists 
of the swamp, the voice of C. holboelli 
mingled with the louder cackle of the 
loon, to which the former is not greatly 
unlike. It is a coarse, prolonged nasal 
quonk, the nasal quality being most pro- 
nounced, the intonation being very sug- 
gestive of the braying of a donkey. In- 
deed, the natives call this grebe the 
“jack diver,” and anyone familiar with 
the nasal volume of tone produced by 
C. holboelli will readily admit the appro- 
priateness of the popular name. 
The margin of the lake proper is 
marked by a growth of buck brush. As 
we approached the swamp, we could 
hear occasional calls from the covert of 
buckbrush. The birds themselves were 
not in sight, except two riding jauntily 
far along the shore near the mouth of a 
little mountain stream, where they were 
accustomed to go to take a meal of 
mountain trout at this very convenient 
larder. The birds thus seen out in the 
open water always kept well beyond 
range of the shotgun, though we fre- 
quently enjoyed shooting at them with 
.22 longs. They swim with greatest 
ease, never allowing us to decrease the 
distance between them and our little 
skiff, though seemingly they used no 
effort to escape us, until alarmed by the 
fusilade of .22’s, when they dived and 
made long stretches under water. 
As we pushed among the reeds in 
the swamp, the grebes could be heard 
quonking in the buckbrush or beyond 
it, where it grew' in thickets several 
rods in width, quite impenetrable with 
a boat and standing in two feet or more 
of water. The birds were doubtless 
chuckling at our disadvantage, for time 
and again as we skirted the bushes we 
were saluted by those outbursts of de- 
riding quonks, and it seemed that the 
birds were just beyond the coverts. 
Upon rounding the bushes, however, 
we could see the grebes, always in twos, 
far out on the open water, showing 
that the call has a very marked ventril- 
oquial effect, or else the effect was due 
to the conductivity of the water. Of 
one feature, though, there was no doubt, 
for as the grebes sat well erect in the 
water, their red necks reflected the sun- 
light as the birds turned this way and 
that in their buoyant movements, and 
identification would have been no 
surer if one of the many .22’s had 
found a lodgment in the intended mark. 
C. holboelli manifested a very playful 
disposition in their movements on the 
open water. They would emit an out- 
burst of quonk, enough to .give credit to 
five times the number of individuals, 
and then run over the water with flut- 
tering wings and spattering feet, as 
though indulging in racing. Two would 
thus play on the water, while perhaps 
two more far over the water would in- 
dulge in like antics. I do not recall 
seeing more than two grebes together 
on the open water. 
Finding it quite impracticable to 
search fully the clumps of buckbrush, 
out of which the birds emerged upon 
our invasion of the swamp, we turned 
our attention to the patches of old reeds 
here and there in the marsh, and to- 
ward the close of the first morning’s 
work, a nest was found, June 4. It was 
among tall reeds in the edge of a clump 
surrounded by open water. Like nests 
of tlie pied-billed grebe <yPodilymbus 
podioeps) that I have examined, this 
nest was made of black decaying grasses, 
with which a few pieces of green reeds 
