tachybaptes

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of very small grebes, with short obtuse bill, short tarsi, and no decided crest or ruff; the least grebes, or dabchicks, of both hemispheres. The type is the common European dabchick, T. minor (or fluviatilis). The American representative is T. dominicus (or dominicanus), the St. Domingo grebe, of the West Indies and other warm parts of America, north to the Rio Grande and some parts of California; it is 9½ inches long, of varied dark coloration, with the crown glossy steel-blue, and the under parts from the neck white with a silky luster and dappled with dusky spots. An inexact synonym of this genus is Sylbeocyclus.