280 THE Birps Asout Us. 
revenge at times. A miller told me of a “speckled 
goose” he had shot, and invited some friends to share 
the subsequent feast with him. “It was the meanest 
goose I ever tackled,” was his concluding remark. 
In autumn, sometimes during the winter, and again 
in early spring, there are seen upon our rivers and 
larger ponds active duck-like birds, that swim away 
from you rapidly if they think they are being watched, 
and dive with startling suddenness if you attempt to 
chase them. They are literally quick as a flash, and 
dodge the coming charge of shot unless it happens 
that your aim was not good, which is very probable. 
These birds are pretty, and occasionally when they 
rise up from the water and flap their wings they show 
a silvery glistening breast that is very beautiful. 
These birds are migrants and seek the far north to 
breed, but are found with us off and on for nearly 
nine months of each year. They are typical divers. 
One of them—Holboell’s Grebe—is rare in the Middle 
States, but by no means unknown to the Delaware 
Valley ; the other is the Horned Grebe, and is more 
frequently seen. Dr. Coues “found it breeding at 
various points in Northern Dakota, as along the Red 
River, in the prairie sloughs, with Coots, Phalaropes, 
and various Ducks, and in pools about the base of 
Turtle Mountain in company with P. californicus and 
the Dabchick.” 
This Dabchick, or Devil-diver, is so plain a bird 
and so generally insignificant that it comes and goes 
without causing the slightest ripple either on the 
water or in our minds; yet the little fellow is cun- 
ning and a real attraction to our mill-ponds, where it 
