8 
GREBES 
been comparatively safe from enemies, and year after year have 
gone south when the lakes froze over and come back again with the 
warm spring days. 
But this life of primitive security was rudely broken into when 
their beautiful silvery breasts and rich brown sides attracted the 
attention of the plume hunters, and within five or six years the 
demand for their skins for hats, muffs, and capes has grown so 
great as to threaten the species, and with it several other species of 
grebes, with extermination. Hunters go to the breeding-grounds 
and shoot the old birds when bold in defense of their eggs and 
young, stripping off their skins and shipping them in thousands to 
the cities. Unless some wise law intervenes, these harmless, beauti¬ 
ful spirits of the lake will soon have disappeared from the face of 
the earth. Vernon Bailey. 
Subgenus Podiceps. 
5. Colymbus dominicus brachypterus Chapm. Least 
Grebe. 
A tiny dusky grebe, about half as big as the dabchick; bill black, tipped 
with whitish. Adults: top of head and back 
dull greenish black; chin and throat blackish ; 
sides of neck and head plumbeous; breast 
mottled silvery gray. Wing: 3.80, bill .82. 
Distribution. — From Panama north to 
southern Texas and Lower California. 
Nest. — On water, floating among the rushes. Eggs: usually 7. 
These tiny grebes are as common in the ponds of southern Texas 
as the dabchick in the north. In open water they bob on the little 
waves, and in quiet pools where the willows overhang the banks 
swim and dive among the sedges and pink water-lilies. When not 
seeking food below the surface of the water, they usually keep 
close to some cover, and in the middle of the day if not hidden in 
the sedges are found sitting close under the shore grass, or in the 
shade of a bush or low-hanging tree. Vernon Bailey. 
GENUS PODLLYMBUS. 
6. Podilymbus podiceps (Linn.). Pied-billed Grebe : Dabchick. 
Bill short and stout, head not crested. Breeding plumage: bill whitish, 
crossed by a black band; upper parts black¬ 
ish ; chin and throat black; breast mottled 
silvery gray. Winter plumage: bill brown¬ 
ish, with paler lower mandible ; chin, throat, 
and breast whitish. Young : head and neck 
more or less striped with brown, black, and 
white. Length: 12-15, wing 4.50-5.00, bill 
about .87. 
Distribution. — North and South America, except extreme northern and 
southern parts, breeding throughout most of its range. 
Fig. 23. 
Fig. 22. 
