154 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



WILD DUCK AND BIRDS SOMETIMES MISTAKEN FOR DUCKS. 

 Gull. Duck. Pied-billed grebe. 



Coot. 



Loon. 



These birds have developed their div- 

 ing and swimming powers at the ex- 

 pense of their wings ; they are as ready 

 to dive and swim as they are reluctant 

 to fly. When they do rise from the 

 water it is with great effort ; but once 

 fairly launched in the air, the flight is 

 not unlike that of the ducks, for which 

 birds they might then be mistaken if 

 at a distance. Loons are oftener seen 

 in flight than grebes ; the latter 

 scarcely ever fly more than a few hun- 

 dred feet at most, and seem to have 

 difficulty in keeping clear of the sur- 

 face. 



The numbers in which they are seen 

 at a given time and place may in a 

 loose way be diagnostic of the groups. 

 Several grebes or loons may be found 

 more or less closely associated, yet 

 they do not congregate in flocks. 

 Ducks, geese and coots are gregarious. 

 The sight of a flock of sizable, swim- 

 ming birds, therefore, somewhat re- 

 stricts the question of identification. 

 We are little concerned with geese, be- 

 cause their relatively great size dis- 

 tinguishes them from all but loons ; 

 from loons they may be distinguished 

 by the fact that they do not dive, and 

 usually are found in flocks. 



It remains to consider color and 

 marking. These so far as they enter 

 into our problem, as limited in this ar- 

 ticle, may usually be regarded as of 

 secondary importance. Bright colors 



are confined almost exclusively to the 

 ducks — more precisely, to the drakes ; 

 this is also largely true of distinct 

 markings of any kind, or such as are 

 likely to be observable in the wild 

 bird ; the loon, however, is distinctly 

 black and white ; yet, because the pat- 

 tern has a rather finely checkered ef- 

 fect, the fact is not noticeable at so 

 great a distance as it is in the case of 

 the golden-eye and the buffle-head 

 drakes. 



Many a time at the sound of the 

 wood-thrush's melodies bave I fallen 

 on my knees and there prayed earn- 

 estly to our God. — Audubon. 



My plea for the large open-air con- 

 tact of children with things as they 

 are, the heritage of every well-nur- 

 tured farm-boy, of every child who 

 has stood on his feet in the presence 

 of natural objects. — David Starr Jor- 

 dan in "The Stabilitv of Truth." 



Men give me some credit for genius. 

 All the genius that I have lies just in 

 this : When I have a subject in hand, 

 I study it profoundly. Day and night 

 it is before me. I explore it in all its 

 bearings. My mind becomes pervaded 

 with it. Then the effort which I make 

 is what people are pleased to call the 

 fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor 

 and thought. — Alexander Hamilton. 



