Jan. ,1916 
CHARACTERISTIC BIRDS OF THE DAKOTA PRAIRIES 
17 
AEchmophorus — is doubtless the king of the family, I had only maddening 
glimpses of him, once catching the gleam of a long white neck across a lake as 
its owner disappeared below. 
Barring AEchmophorus, holboelli is head and shoulders above all the 
others in size and distinction. Its height above the water, its striking white 
throat-latch, and long red neck glowing in the sun make it a marked bird. 
What a contrast to the plain little Pied-billed we had been seeing in the tules 
leading around its tiny chicks ! When holboelli puts down its head in preen- 
ing itself the white chin does not show, and it may have to be distinguished 
from some of the marsh dwellers by its reddish body ; but when the long red- 
dish neck is raised to its full height, the bill becomes a short horizontal line 
surmounting a high vertical one — "J — and even at a distance the white throat- 
latch makes a striking field character. 
The Grebes we heard calling from across the lake lived in the tules of a 
marsh opening into the lake. When I went to the marsh young and old all 
seemed to be talking at once, but the loud grating ker’r’r and a liquid hen 
turkey note drowned the rest. In my anxiety to see better I made the fatal 
mistake of rising above my tule screen for a moment, and silence fell. The 
two parents immediately swam out into the lake, one with such a decided 
hump on its back that it must have been carrying off its young, as an alarmed 
parent had been seen doing a few days previously nearer at hand. After a long 
silence I caught one of the old Grebes with head turned looking my way, 
after which there was more silence ; and when the loud talking was finally 
resumed it was behind a screen all too far out on the lake. 
Though so interesting and distinguished, the lordly holboelli did not lessen 
my affection for the quiet little Eared Grebes with whom I had been on Stump 
Lake during the summer. Slender, gracefully formed little creatures, with 
the pointed crest and light ear patch, they would swim along near shore 
quietly looking at me, or make pictures of themselves out in the white 
luminosity of reflected cloud on the still lake, the pointed head and graceful 
neck charmingly mirrored below. Though so quiet and gentle, the pretty 
calif ornicus is nervous, and, if you do not keep as quiet as it does, after turn- 
ing alertly from side to side scrutinizing you, will curve forward on its bill 
and dive below, the silvery white of its belly showing below the reddish brown 
of its sides as it disappears. 
The Eared has the Grebe habit of lying on its side on the water so that 
its white breast, whose soft silky feathers have been made all too familiar by 
milliners, gleams far across the water. Sometimes the bird turns on its side 
just long enough to flash across the water and then is gone below. When 
swimming around with the white hidden, its body glows reddish brown in the 
sun. On the rare occasions when one sits on the water with its long neck 
down, it is amusingly transformed into a snug little Duck. 
While watching the Eared Grebes on Stump Lake I saw them going about 
either singly or in pairs until the middle of June, when I discovered a family 
of half-grown young swimming around some distance from shore. Seeing 
me, the old mother gave a harsh imperative ka-keep, ka-keep, at which the 
scattered brood started to swim in toward her making small wakes in the 
still water. As they were coming she gave a loud musical call, hoy-ee-up', 
hoy-ee-up', also heard on Sweetwater Lake, carrying far over the water. 
When the Eared Grebes of Stump Lake had become familiar friends, two 
Horned Grebes appeared along shore and were seen there for three or four 
