14 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 86 



pany with ]Mr. Howard Graham the writer was poling a boat 

 thru the rushes of an old swamp for the purpose of locating 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird nests on which Ave wished to make 

 some observations. Suddenly a great commotion was heard 

 just ahead of the boat, and I stepped to the prow to see 

 what it was. The boat was almost onto a nest of this species 

 and the old bird was near it, apparently helpless. One wing 

 hung limp and she frantically kicked and splashed about 

 without making an.y forward progress. All of the time she 

 uttered a curious grating note unlike anything I ever heard 

 from a grel)e. For an experiment we swung the boat around 

 and followed her. She kept up these actions, but swam slowly 

 away until a point some twenty-five yards from the nest was 

 reached, when she dived into the reeds and was seen no more. 

 Shortly after this experience, progress became so slow in the 

 boat that we abandoned it and started to wade. After travel- 

 ing about half an hour, I came to another grebe nest in which 

 the eggs were just hatching. Both parents were present and 

 commenced the same performance. As I took a step forward 

 they worked slowly away, splashing violently and creating a 

 great disturl)ance. The same peculiar call was noted as in 

 the other case. After moving a few steps I stopped and 

 remained standing quietly near the nest. The grebes, on see- 

 ing me stop, disappeared and I supposed they had given up 

 the attempt to lead me away. Suddenly one popped into 

 view almost within reach of my hand and worked slowly 

 aw^ay as before. This one had proceeded about ten yards 

 when the other one came into view near me and started away. 

 The pair kept up this alternate performance for fully five 

 minutes l)efore they finally ceased. On seeing that I was not 

 to l)e duped by their actions, they remained quietly on the 

 water about ten yards away until I started again. One of 

 them followed me for some distance before finally disap- 

 pearing. 



The parents seem to be more devoted to the young than 

 many of the other marsh nesting birds. The young crawl 

 from the nest as soon as they hatch and the parent leads 

 them away, always keeping between them and a possible 



