GREBES: WESTERN GREBE 
79 
the work of nest construction, dragging up masses of algae to a certain 
point and diving actively for more while the males remained near the 
nest posturing over it, trilling, and reaching out over it as though to aid 
the female as she approached with building material” (1920a, pp. 231- 
234). 
On large bodies of water, nests that are not anchored sometimes 
drift off during a storm. When surprised on the nest, the brooding 
birds hurriedly pull up the nest lining or drag up the stems of water 
weeds to cover the whitish eggs before leaving them, perhaps to keep 
them warm while the mother is away, perhaps to hide them from enemies 
such as gulls that slip in during the absence of the parent, to eat them. 
When the eggs have hatched, Mr. Job says, it is an odd sight to see 
a “crop of little heads sticking out from under the parent’s wing.” As 
Mr. Ligon wrote from Horse Lake, the little fellows ride on the back of 
one parent while the other dives and brings up their food. When they 
are half grown they begin to dive, he says, but do not remain under 
water so long as the old birds. A half-grown family that I discovered 
in North Dakota were swimming well out on a large lake, but when 
their mother caught sight of me, she gave a harsh imperative ka-keep', 
ha-keep', and the scattered brood promptly started to swim toward her, 
making small wakes in the still water, her loud musical hoy-ee-up ', 
hoy-ee-up', encouraging them as they swam. 
Another grebe mother, found in September in the sooty and white 
fall plumage that makes it hard to distinguish the Eared from the 
Horned, was working hard to get the last meal of the day for her single 
little one, diving—by the watch—as many as six or seven times a minute, 
the young one sometimes putting its head under water between times 
as if even that rapid rate of feeding were not enough to satisfy its eager 
appetite. 
Like the Western Grebe, the Eared was formerly killed in large 
numbers for its plumage, but as Doctor Wetmore puts it, fortunately 
laws and fashions changed in time to prevent its extermination 
(1924, p. 17). 
Additional Literature.—Finley, W. L., Condor, IX, 99, 1907.— Job, H. K., 
Among the Water-Fowl, 1-14, 1902.— Rockwell, R. B., Condor, XII, 188-193, 
1910.— Wetmore, Alexander, Auk, XXXVII, 231-235, 1920; U. S. Dept. Agr. 
Bull. 1196, 15-18, 1924 (food). 
WESTERN GREBE: Aechmophorus occidentals (Lawrence) 
Description. — Male: Length 24-29 inches; wing 7.4-8.5; bill 2.6-3. Female: 
Smaller. Bill long and slender. Adults: Face, long neck, and underparts snow white; 
crown, and stripe down hack of neck, blackish; back brownish gray; wing quills marked 
with white; iris pink or red, with a white ring. Immature: Back of head and hind- 
neck grayish black. 
