A Grebe Colony
BY GERARD A. ABBOTT
AST spring, while on a collecting trip in North Dakota, the writer L was encamped for a month on a narrow neck of land, surrounded
on three sides by a chain of lakes. This point was covered with a small growth of timber, mostly poplars, and was an ideal spot for a camp. A strip of wild rice from fifty to one hundred and fifty yards wide bordered the lake at this place, and it is here that one of the largest Grebe colonies in the Devil's Lake region is located Fifteen hundred birds composed this colony, two-thirds of which were Western Grebes, and the other five hundred consisted chiefly of American Eared Grebes, although there was an occasional Pied Grebe among them.
May 15 Western Grebes commenced laying, and June I breeding was at its height. Their nests were huge masses of decayed vegetation, float- ing among the wild rice (which at this time was eight feet high). Three to six, and occasionally seven and eight eggs were found in a nest.
The little Eared Grebes were breeding on the border of the Western Grebes' colony, and so numerous were they that it was impossible to enter the colony without brushing against some of their nests and disturbing the eggs. The Eared Grebes were about ten days later in laying, but their period of incubation was evidently shorter, for young birds were hatched equally as soon as those of the larger species.
When we slowly made our way into the colony (for the canes were very dense, and the water from two and onevhalf to (our feet deep) the birds splashed on all sides of us, and the sound produced, as the voices of the Eared Grebes mingled with those of the larger species, was almost deafeningi The piercing cries of the Eared Grebe were soon drowned by the shrill notes of their larger relatives, who kept up this clamor all night, renewing it at daylight with increased vigor.
Travelers crossing the country often hear strange sounds coming from the lakes a mile or more distant. Listen! it is a multitude of voices, and sounds not unlike the creaking of prairie frogs in some near-by marsh. Those are the notes of the Western Grebe, and when heard, especially at night, produce an efiect unlike any other experienced by the ornithologist.
In such a colony more or less confusion always exists When we approached the nests of the Western Grebe the big birds would sometimes allow us almost to touch them before making any effort to leave their nest. When thus disturbed, Western Grebes usually take to the open water, where they soon become scattered in all directions.
Eared Grebes were seldom seen on their nests, but when disturbed would remain in the vicinity of their eggs, constantly swimming by us in groups of three or four, and sometimes diving almost under our feet, so
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