80 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Range. —Western North America, particularly the lakes of the prairie regions. 
Breeds from British Columbia (summer birds perhaps only non-breeding birds), 
northern Alberta, north-central Saskatchewan, and central Manitoba south to east- 
central North Dakota, central Utah, and southern California; winters west and south 
of the Rocky Mountains, mainly on the Pacific coast, from southern British Colum¬ 
bia, western Nevada, southwestern Arizona (Gila River) south to southern Mexico; 
casual eastward. 
State Records. —The Western Grebe breeds mainly west of 100° in southern 
Canada and the northern United States and winters near the Pacific coast. It 
wanders occasionally eastward and one was taken in November, 1873, on the Gila 
River in New Mexico (Henshaw).—W. W. Cooke. 
General Habits. —The white-throated Western Grebe, or Swan 
Grebe, the largest and handsomest of this interesting family of divers, 
may be recognized across a good sized lake when seen only as a disap¬ 
pearing flash of white. So beautiful are the silky white feathers of its 
throat and breast that before the market for grebe skins was closed 
many of its large breeding colonies on western lakes were broken up 
by plume hunters, and thousands of these unusual birds, whose curious 
courtship and fascinating ways would have attracted nature lovers to 
their home-waters, were ruthlessly destroyed to meet the ephemeral 
demands of the millinery traffic. 
Additional Literature.—Bailey, F. M., Condor, XX, 170-178, 1918.— Bent, 
A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 107, 1-9, 1919.— Chapman, F. M., Camps and Cruises 
of an Ornithologist, 302, 330, 349, 1908.— Finley, W. L., Condor, IX, 97-101, 
1907.— Job, II. K., Among the Water Fowl, 15-27, 1902.— Wetmore, Alexander, 
U. S. Dept. Agr. Bull. 1196, 5-7, 1924 (food). 
PIED-BILLED GREBE: Podilymbus podiceps podiceps (Linnaeus) 
Description.— Length: 12-15 inches, wing 4.5-5, bill about .9. Bill short and 
thick, its ridge curved. Adult summer plumage: Upperparts brownish or blackish; 
throat black, breast brownish , belly white mottled with dusky; bill light colored , banded; 
iris brown and white, eyelids white, feet greenish black and leaden. Adult winter 
and young plumage: Throat white, without black patch, bill without band. 
Comparisons. —In winter and young plumages, the short, strongly curved, “hen¬ 
like bill” and the absence of shining white cheeks distinguish the Pied-bill from the 
Horned and Eared Grebes. (See pp. 75, 76.) 
Range. —Breeds from British Columbia, Great Slave Lake, Manitoba, Quebec, 
and New Brunswick south to Chile and Argentina, though often rare or local; 
winters from coast of British Columbia, Washington, New York, and the Potomac 
Valley south to Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Lower California, and southward. 
State Records. —The Pied-billed Grebe ranges in summer over much of North 
and South America but is very irregular in its choice of localities for nesting. Half- 
grown young and nests with eggs were found at Lake Burford 7,500 feet, in Rio 
Arriba County, July 17,1913, where the birds were fairly common; and on July 20, 
a nest was seen containing eight eggs and three newly hatched young; at Dulce Lake 
and Clear Lake they were also common; [they were found breeding fairly commonly 
at Lake Burford in July, 1916 (Ligon), and commonly on June 18,1918, when a brood 
of newly hatched young was found (Wetmore). At Silver City they are found in 
