8 WATER-BIRDS IN THEIR HOMES. 



But the grebe cannot fly well. Her wings are small, her 

 breast muscles very weak, her body so badly balanced that 

 when she is getting upon the wing it drags down like that of 

 a hornet until she is fairly under way ; after that, with neck 

 straight out in front, and legs as stiffly stretched back to steer 

 her, she flies fairly well. Even then she cannot fly under all 

 conditions : she must get her start by flapping and spattering 

 along the surface, working with both A\dngs and feet ; and she 

 must have some space to run in, and a breeze to run against, 

 or she cannot mount upon the wing. 



Indeed, but for two circumstances, we may suppose the grebe 

 would never fly at all. In the fall of the year she sees that she 

 must leave her summer home. Soon the ponds will be frozen, 

 and her food supply will be killed or covered with ice. If she 

 is not frozen to death, she will be starved, unless she leaves 

 before winter. So when a breezy day comes the grebes mount 

 and are off — the pied-billed grebes to southern quarters, the 

 horned grebes to the ocean which never freezes. But with the 

 spring back come the grebes. For those that winter in the 

 ocean this is almost as necessary as their going south. Nor 

 is it hard to see why it should be so. As the grebe cannot 

 walk she must always nest close to the water's edge. But at 

 the seashore the water's edge at high tide may be half a mile 

 away from the low-tide mark. Even where there are but a 

 few rods between the two the grebe would have to take her 

 choice between a day on the nest and a day in the water, as it 

 is twelve hours from tide to tide. So if she would raise a 

 brood, she must fly to some pond or inland lake where there is 

 no tide to incommode birds that cannot walk. Therefore, 

 while the grebe lives in the North in summer she must be able 

 to make these journeys. To be unable to fly would mean the 

 extermination of the race by cold and starvation. 



