36 
SUBORDER— COLYMBI. GREBES 
FAMILY COLYMBIDAE. GREBES 
General Description. Grebes are divers with feet lobed and not fully webbed, and 
without perceptible tails. Instead of full webs extending from toe to toe, as in most swim- 
ming birds, the digits are provided with a scalloped edging of flat, lobe-like flaps or processes 
hinged to the toe. These make excellent paadles during the stroke and, folding away, 
offer the minimum of resistance to the water on the return. Their wonderful diving ability 
has given these birds the common sobriquets of Hell-diver, Water-witch, etc., but they are 
almost helpless on land All our Grebes have the secondaries more or less tipped with 
white, making a white border to the spread wing, absent in the Loons. 
Distinctions. Scalloped toe webs (Figure 13, page 25), Bhort tail, straight, pointed 
bill, and the peculiar silvery sheen of the feathers of the underparts. 
Field Marks. Pointed bill and inconspicuous tail. Feet carried straight out behind 
when flying. 
Nesting. In reeds or rushes bordering sloughs or ponds, on floating or stationary 
heaps of vegetable matter. 
Distribution. Grebes are distributed over the whole of Canada, well into the Arctic 
zone. In the breeding season they are generally more common on fresh, than on salt, water. 
Grebes are, typically, inhabitants of fresh ponds and lakes, though at 
times they frequent the sea in numbers. The adults are coloured in rather 
broad masses; the young usually show sharp stripes, especially about the 
head, indicating that the family has descended from a common striped 
ancestor. The Grebe breasts, so much used for trimming and millinery 
purposes, are procured from birds of this family. The former sacrifice of 
large numbers for this purpose and the continued drainage of many of 
their natural breeding grounds have greatly reduced their numbers. 
Fortunately the Migratory Birds Convention Act with the United 
States protects these birds at all seasons of the year over most of 
the continent and their slaughter for millinery purposes is happily now a 
thing of the past. 
Economic Status. Feeding almost entirely upon water-inhabiting 
creatures they are of little direct economic importance. Considerable 
masses of feathers are found in many Grebe stomachs, but the reason for 
their presence is not yet perfectly understood. They are commonly feathers 
from the bird’s own body and it has been suggested by Wetmore, “Condor,” 
1920, pages 18-20, that they serve as a plug to prevent fish bones from being 
carried from the stomach into the intestine before they are properly softened 
by digestion. Why such mechanical assistance is necessary in only 
certain divisions of birds is an enigma. 
Western Grebe, swimming; 
scale, about ifo. 
Figure 72 
Types of bill of Western 
Grebe; scale, |. 
1. Western Grebe, swan grebe. Aechmophorus occidentalis. L, 27*25. This 
and HolboelTs Grebe are the largest of our native Grebes; the Western measures the longer 
because of its great length of slender neck. This Grebe is in all plumages a pure black and 
white bird (Figure 71) without variation of colour. It has slightly developed crests over 
each ear. 
