82 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
of the Eared Grebe, were strangely formal and interesting. The most 
remarkable was a rhythmic, pivoted figure in which the pair, facing each 
other about a foot apart—the male with feathers of neck and back 
puffed out and wing tips slightly raised—swung around back to back, 
and after a second or two swung again face to face; the performance being 
repeated at ten or fifteen second intervals for nearly ten minutes. 
Another year at Lake Burford, Mr. Ligon came suddenly upon a nest 
containing eight of the whitish eggs and three chicks just out of the shell, 
whereupon one of the nestlings took to water, the other two tumbled 
about over the eggs, the parent birds staying near, decoyed by 
flopping and crying out. A mother that Doctor Wetmore surprised 
with her brood rose threateningly on the water making a great boiling 
noise by treading water rapidly with her feet. As she swam slowly 
away, one by one the young climbed on her back until she was carry¬ 
ing four under the feathers of her wings. After the first alarm, when 
the swimming chick came near its mother, it tried to climb up on 
her back. 
I have seen the startled mother, when discovered with her brood of 
young in the open, give her cuckoo call— chuck-uk-uk-uk —at which the 
downy brood promptly followed her through tule waterways to thick 
cover, peeping like little chickens. Their heads and necks, like those 
of other downy grebes, have the heavy irregular striping that Abbott 
Thayer the artist and student of protective coloration explained and 
characterized as “highly specialized obliterative picture-patterns,” for 
among the tides, where the greatest danger comes from sneaking ene¬ 
mies, the strong irregular markings picture the reeds and their dark 
shadows. 
The commonest Pied-bill note Doctor Wetmore heard was a loud 
coh coli coh coh coh coh cow cow cow cow , the first series of notes increasing 
in rapidity as they progressed and the last given more slowly with equal 
intervals between them. This was varied to coo-coo-coo-coo-qua, coo - 
coo-qua , coo-coo-qua, continued for some time, the qua being prolonged 
and with a curious rising inflection. A harsh raucous laugh and a low 
whistled note were also given (1920a, pp. 235-236). Under favorable 
conditions, Mr. Taverner finds, the loud Pied-bill calls may be heard for 
a mile or more (1926, p. 39). 
When at rest, those that Doctor Wetmore watched “ spent much time 
in preening, and when feathers were loosened in this process (as many 
were) they were seized, dabbled in the water and swallowed.” This 
surprising feather-swallowing habit is common to all grebes, and as 
Dr. Wetmore suggests, plays an important part in their digestion. The 
grebe stomach, as he explains, has “a small accessory chamber (a 
pyloric lobe) in which the opening into the small intestine is found. This 
lobe is almost invariably plugged with a ball of feathers, which act as a 
