282 
ZOOLOGY. 
Sp. Ch.— Mult: Upper part of the head, cheeks, throat, and ruff, glossy black ; a broad band running from the bill over the 
eyes, and the elongated occipital tufts behind them yellowish red, deepest in color adjoining the bill ; upper surface brownish 
black, the feathers margined with gray ; primaries brownish ash, secondaries mostly white, some of the outer ones dark ash; the 
fore neck and upper part of the breast bright chestnut red, sides of the same color, intermixed with dusky ; abdomen silky white, 
bill bluish black, yellow at the tip: loral space bright carmine; iris carmine, with an inner circle of white; tarsi and feet dusky gray 
externally; dull yellow internally, and on both edges of the tarsus. 
Length, about 14 inches ; extent, 24 ; wing, 5f ; bill, 1; tarsi, If. 
Young: The whole upper plumage grayish black, darkest on the head, feathers of the back with gray margins ; throat, sides 
of the head, a broad space on the sides of the neck, nearly meeting behind, breast and abdomen, silvery white ; sides and lower 
part of abdomen dusky. 
Hab. —Generally distributed, specimens being in the collection from the Atlantic States, the interior ones, and the 
Pacific coast. 
The horned grebe is abundant between the parallels of 45° and 49° north latitude, from the 
Mississippi river to the Pacific. I obtained specimens at St. Paul, Minnesota, also in western 
Minnesota, near Nebraska, and from the salt waters of Puget Sound. Many birds of this 
species breed on the saline lakes so abundant in the western portion of Minnesota. It is a 
winter resident of Puget Sound, where it is known as the Ho-hwhy by the Nisqually Indians. 
Like other species of the genus this grebe has the power of remaining for a considerable time 
under water. It dives very quickly, and is very difficult to capture when wounded. I have 
not noticed it float about entirely submerged, excepting the bill and head, as others do when 
anxious to avoid detection, but suppose that this instinct is as common to it as the other habitsi 
which are so similar between the different species.—S. 
The horned grebe appears along the coast in September and October in large numbers. It 
has the usual habits of the grebes, living on fish, for which it dives, and depending less on its 
wings than its feet for escape, though able to fly well when compelled to. One which I opened 
had its stomach full of a marine grass. In April they retire beyond the Territory. Their only 
cry is faint and bleating.—C. 
PODICEPS CALIFORNICUS, Heermann. 
TJie California Grebe. 
Podicejis californicus, Heerm. Proc. Acad. N. Sc. Phil. VII, 1854, 179.— Baird & Lawrence, Gen. Rep. Birds, 896. 
Sp. Ch . — Winter plumage : The entire upper plumage is blackish brown, nearly black on the head ; primaries brownish ash, 
some of the inner ones tipped with while ; secondaries white, with their basal portions dark ash ; under parts silky white, 
the neck in front light ash, and the sides and lower part of abdomen brownish ash ; under linings of the wings white bill dark 
brown, the base of the lower mandible yellowish, and its tip light horn color ; iris yellowish gray ; tarsi and feet externally 
dark green, on the inside yellow. 
Length, 12 inches ; wing, 5 ; bill, |; tarsus, 1£. 
Hab .—California, headwaters of Missouri and Columbia rivers. 
I obtained a specimen of the California grebe in tbe St. Mary’s valley, (W. T.,) lying 
between tbe Eocky and Bitter Eoot mountains. The bird was badly injured in the head by a 
rifle ball, so as to puzzle me very much while attempting to compare it with the recorded 
descriptions of the different species to which I had access. In habits this grebe appears nearly 
related to the P. cornutus. —S. 
