Abstract
A study of the relative proportions of coloured retinal oil droplets in the five Canadian grebe species and the American Coot was undertaken to evaluate the possibility of an ecological rationale to the pattern of variation in these proportions among the species. Statistical analysis suggests that there may be significant differences in these proportions among the six species studied, and that some species show significant heterogeneity among the nine sectors into which the retinas were divided. There was no significant association of oil droplet proportions in either Western or Red-necked grebes with two different lake types. Significantly greater mean total droplet densities were found in the Pied-billed Grebe and the American Coot than the other four grebes; the lowest droplet densities were shown by Western and Eared grebes. The finding of significant within-retina (among-sector) variation, and high levels of individual variation in some species throws into question reported values for other species where single samples have been taken from one or a few individuals.
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