2 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 8-No. 1 
with eggs nicely covered, resembles a float¬ 
ing bunch of half decayed moss, showing 
above the water about the size of an in¬ 
verted soup-plate, and would be rarely no¬ 
ticed by a person unacquainted with it. 
I found my first nest by accident, and 
could hardly believe that little bunch of 
wet stuff was a bird’s nest, but I secreted 
myself and watched with a glass until the 
bird returned, which I at once recognized 
as a Carolina Grebe. After this I had no 
trouble in finding more nests, and by set¬ 
ting traps upon them caught several birds 
and fully identified the species. The nests 
are all much alike, and entirely different 
from any other with which I am acquaint¬ 
ed. They are always built in places pro¬ 
tected from high waves, or they would be 
speedily overwhelmed. 
The Eared Grebe breeds in communities. 
The first colony that I found was in a 
small lake in northern Dakota. The nests 
were built on floating debris about fifteen 
rods from shore, where the water was per¬ 
haps three feet deep. Old flag leaves, 
rushes, reeds, etc., had been driven by the 
wind into the point of a bay, forming a 
mass two or three inches deep and several 
square rods in extent. This mass was 
firm enough to hold up the birds in most 
places, but was full of holes where they 
could dive through. There were at least 
twenty-five nests, on an area of ten by 
twenty feet. They were made of partly de¬ 
cayed moss and reeds brought up from the 
bottom, were small, not more than a hand¬ 
ful of material to a nest. The eggs are 
clear, blueish-wliite at first, but soon get 
discolored by the wet nest. No nest in 
this colony contained more than four eggs, 
but in other places five have been found. 
The birds generally cover all. The situa¬ 
tion of their nests was entirely open, the 
shore was high and completely overlooked 
them. I sat on the shore and with a glass 
saw the birds building nests and setting 
on their eggs. As we approached in a 
boat they did not seem very shy; did not 
begin to leave till we were quite near them. 
Most of them covered their eggs more or 
less before leaving. They mostly dove 
directly from nest and came up near in a 
flock. A few ran out and joined the flock 
without diving - . Another small colony of 
these birds built their nests on bunches of 
broken down rushes. The nests were small 
and just above the water. No person fa¬ 
miliar with the breeding habits of these 
birds could mistake the nest of one for the 
other. The Carolina nest singly, in thick 
rushes, weeds or grass, sometimes a long 
distance from open water, build the foun¬ 
dation of nest, which is large, always 
cover their eggs with great care when leav¬ 
ing them, are very shy, never seen near their 
nest, lay from six to nine eggs, begin lay¬ 
ing in Wisconsin by the 10th of May, in 
Dakota about the 20th. 
The Eared builds in communities, in 
open situations near open water, make a 
small nest, on some existing foundation, 
cover eggs partly, or not at all, are not 
particularly shy, are often seen near nest, 
lay four or five eggs, do not begin laying 
till June. I have carefully measured thirty 
eggs of each variety. The Carolina aver¬ 
age : 1.69X1.17. The Eared 1.75x1.19. 
Contrary to my expectations the Eared are 
the largest.— B. F. Goss, PewauJcee, Wis. . 
h _XX*b.¥Xll.J»n.l883.p,/- 
Explanation.— The ground owls do dot 
alwhws lay more eggS than those inhapfting 
trees, Tor I have known - Wilsoms Short- 
ear to laWive, the Bam Owl/seven, and 
heard of Great Horned Owls with four. 
The Barn Owl does not sfeim to lay more 
in the ground binsrow? than in trees or 
caves, but varies imch in number. I 
think it is dependent on amount of food 
and perhaps of room. I suspect the little 
Burrowing OW1 of Polygamy in some 
cases, or perhaps it is parasitispi.— J. G. 
Cooper , M. D., Hayward, Cal. 
[We thaiiK I)r. Cooper for his reply, for it is in\hat way 
we can gepat facts. We have in our collection BurWwing 
Owl 10, Barn Owl 8 and T, Short-eared Owl 8, Snowy Owl 6, 
Gray Owl 4, Long-eared Owl 5, Hawk Owl 6, Mottled OwlH, 
Greaynorned Owl 8 and Barred Owl 8. The remarks on 
Bur/owing Owl will call for further careful observations—\ 
Et/] 
The Thick-billed Grebes {Podilymbus podiceps') Breeding in Kansas. — 
B. L. Bennett and V. L. Kellogg of Emporia, Kans., both report finding, 
May 26, 1885, in a pond or slough near the city, cjuite a number of the 
nests of this bird containing from five to ten eggs each.— N. S. Goss, 
Topeka, Kans. 
Auk., 2, Oct., 1886. p. 3 
