. Birds of America;. Birds -- North America. GREBES fresh condition, will readily float and are of suffi- cient buoyancy to bear the \vei,i,''ht of the ne'^t, the eggs, and the brooding bird. In Morida, where I have examined perhaps fifty of their nests, I never found more than six eggs in any one of them, but observers farther north speak of finding as many as eight and nine. In color they are dull white, unspotted, but sometimes tinged with greenish, and always soiled or stained. When leaving its nest the Grebe jjulls the water-soaked material well over tlie eggs, so that usually they are co
. Birds of America;. Birds -- North America. GREBES fresh condition, will readily float and are of suffi- cient buoyancy to bear the \vei,i,''ht of the ne'^t, the eggs, and the brooding bird. In Morida, where I have examined perhaps fifty of their nests, I never found more than six eggs in any one of them, but observers farther north speak of finding as many as eight and nine. In color they are dull white, unspotted, but sometimes tinged with greenish, and always soiled or stained. When leaving its nest the Grebe jjulls the water-soaked material well over tlie eggs, so that usually they are completely hiddeii from view. While in this condition anyone not acquainted with the nesting habits of the bird w^ould surely pass it by unnoticed, never dreaming that in that little mass of floating, rotting water-jjlants the cherished treasures of a wild bird lay concealed. .\udubon said that the food of the Pied-billed Grebe " consists of small fry, plant-seeds, aquatic insects, and snails; along with this they swallow- ; Wayne writes: " FOuring the breeding season, the food consists mainlv of ; They should never be shot, for they are worse than useless for food. They certainlv do no harm, and an ever-increasing class of bird-stu- dents take much pleasure in spying upon their 'Uteresting movements. They have many enemies, among which mav be mentioned minks, fish, frogs, snakes, and musk- rats. Birds of prey undoubtedly take their share. One day with much labor I climbed an enormous [)ine tree to a nest of the Bald Eagle around which the old birds were circling. Upon reach- ing it after a ])rolonged and heart-breaking efl^ort I found it to contain only one object — a Pied- billed Grebe, with its feathers still damp and the lilood spots on its head but half dried. T. Gilbert PIED-BILLED GREBE Swimming up to its newly hatched young that has struggled from the nest. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page image
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Keywords: ., bookauthorpearsont, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookyear1923
