GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS WEST OF 100TH MERIDIAN. 333 
Description of nestling. —Head above smoky brown, tbe same color prevailing 
below, but becoming darker across the jugulum and lighter on abdomen ; sides of head 
and loral region white; back and sides of body pale cinnamon brown, interspersed 
with irregular patches of black; bill black ; feet brownish. 
COLYMBIDH2—Divers. 
Colymbus Linnaeus. 
C. torquatus (Bruun.). Great Northern Diver. 
From information received from various sources I had been led to consider this diver 
as of rather uncommon occurrence in the waters of this region. During the past season, 
however, it was met with several times on Eagle Lake, Cal., where a number of 
pairs breed regularly, and the same is true, I think, of Goose Lake, where, at any rate, 
the species was observed by our party during the late summer. 
PODICIPID.E—Grebes. 
Podiceps Latham. 
P. occidental^ (Lawr.). Western Grebe. 
None the less striking because familiar is the appearance of this large grebe as seen 
upon the extensive lakes of Nevada, and tbe country generally west of the Rocky 
Mountains. At what time in the spring it makes its appearance in these latitudes I do 
not know. On the occasion of my first visit to Washoe Lake about the middle of May 
the water was dotted with water birds, and conspicuous among them, as well bv its 
elegance of form as by its graceful motions, was this grebe. Subsequently, when in 
turn I visited the several lakes lying to the northward, I found it an abundant inhab¬ 
itant of them all. Indeed, with the exception of Lake Tahoe, I know of no large body 
of water in the far West that is exempt from its presence. The high elevation oi P Tahoe, 
over 6,000 feet, probably accounts for the absence of the bird, as in all the other mount¬ 
ain lakes of less elevation I have always found it present in abundance. 
There is a pretty close correspondence in the character of the food, the manner of 
obtaining it, and in the habits of nidification of the various speciesof this family, and 
my observations have not shown that the western grebe possesses any very marked 
individuality in these respects, unless such as arises from its great size aud superior 
prowess in manner of obtaining food. The largest of our species, the present bird ex¬ 
cels all the others in natatorial powers, and iu its ability to remain a long time sub¬ 
merged, in which particular it almost rivals the loon. It is probable, therefore, that 
this grebe is able to avail itself of its remarkable powers iu the capture of fish, and 
it hence lives more upon them than do the other smaller aud less powerful species. 
But fish do not, I think, form by any means its principal diet. Thelarvre of all aquatic 
insects, various worms and leeches, as also some kinds of aquatic plants, make up its 
chief dependence. 
The western grebe is a wonderfully quick diver, as I have had occasion to learn when 
after specimens, and I have found it almost impossible to kill the old and wary birds 
even at very short range, provided the bird was not taken uuawares and could see the 
Hash of the gun. However true the aim, and whatever the precaution as to the place 
aimed at, the leaden pellets when they reached the spot found only empty space, where 
a moment before was to be seen the long, snaky neck of the cunning diver. 
It is about the 1st of June when the various species of grebes begin to think of 
their domestic duties, and if they be watched now they will be found to have gath¬ 
ered together into loose companies, which are to colonize together later on, and to 
spend much of their time in swimming back and forth iu a rather excited manner 
just off one of the many clumps of tales that grow around the margins of most 
of the western lakes. The shallow depths about such form, it is true, favorite hunt¬ 
ing grounds at all seasons, but around the comparatively few spots that possess the 
necessary qualifications for nesting purposes the concentration of the birds will be 
more marked as well as more persistent. The thicker tangled recesses among the tules 
are shunned, and only those spots among the season’s fresh growth selected, where the 
tall reeds, Avhile affording ample protection as well from the waves of the open lake 
as from chance observation, will yet admit of unimpeded progress in swimming to 
and from the nest. Such a place found numerous pairs center iu and form a sort of 
independent colony, and the preparations for the nest are leisurely gone on with. A 
few of the surrounding tule-stems are perhaps broken off or bent down, and other 
reedy material gathered aud laid in a pile, the structure being ready for occupation 
when a slightly hollowed and homogeneous mass of this is raised so"a 3 to fully clear 
the surface of the water. 
