244 



Bird - Lore 



gist who would become familiar with their lives. During their migration 

 they are conspicuous enough, floating about on the surface of the water, 

 sinking from sight when intently watched, or diving with a saucy flip of the 

 feet at the discharge of a gun. But as soon as the breeding season has begun, 

 no bird is more wary or difficult to observe. Occasionally their peculiar soft 

 love-notes float out from the reeds to indicate their presence, or a few widen- 

 ing circles on the surface of the pond mark the spot from which the watchful 

 bird has espied us, but it is rarely indeed that we can sit and watch them as we 

 would other birds. I have known of three pairs nesting about a small and 

 much-frequented pond, with scarcely a person suspecting their presence; even 



though one nest, 

 sheltered by only a few 

 rushes, was almost con- 

 spicuous from the path 

 not fifty feet away. 

 No one for a moment 

 assumed that the float- 

 ing pile of debris, 

 anchored near the outer 

 edge of the rushes, and 

 freed from all attempts 

 at architecture, was the 

 nest of a bird, much 

 less that of the Hell- 

 diver which had been 

 heard calling, off and 

 on during the spring, 

 and occasionally seen 

 floating on the open 

 surface of the pond. 

 It resembled more the 

 platform of a water- 

 rat or a' pile of drift stranded by the subsidence of the spring floods. The 

 eggs, moreover, were never left exposed to the hostile search of Crows or 

 water snakes, but were always carefully covered with material from the nest 

 when not actually concealed by the inconspicuous body of the Grebe. 

 Little wonder, then, that the nest was overlooked. 



I was first directed to the spot by a friend who said that 'Coots' were 

 nesting there. I was not a little surprised, therefore, when, after wading for a 

 short distance along the edge of the pond, my attention was attracted by a 

 splash in the water ahead, accompanied by a startled note like the syllable 

 "keck," and a few seconds later a Grebe bobbed into sight. Instead of immedi- 

 ately sinking again, as one learns to expect of a Grebe, it rose up on its legs 



THE SAME WITH THE COVERING OF THE 

 EGGS REMOVED 



