In North- West Canada. 183 



return to it aofain, and then struck out in another direction. 

 In crossing over an island, I found a nest of the blue-winged 

 teal, and the young birds had left the nest, as shown by the 

 broken egg^ shells. Soon afterwards I flushed a Wilson's pha- 

 larope ; the four eggs were on the point of hatching, so I did 

 not take them. I startled a bittern from a clump of rushes, 

 and made several attempts to wade to the spot, but the watei- 

 was deep, and came over my long top boots. At last I manag- 

 ed to reach the spot where the bittern had flown from, but 

 was disappointed to And no signs of a nest. Later I flushed a 

 little brown crane. Ducks and coots kept flying out of the 

 rushes, and the centre of the lake was dotted all over with 

 water birds. I found it a difficult task wading about, as in 

 some places the water was deep, and how I longed for a boat, 

 so that I could get about easily. I made up my mind that 

 when next I visited Long Lake, I would bring a canoe along 

 with me. 



I now came to a place where black terns swarmed, and I 

 could see a number of eggs laid on the floating debris, but I 

 could not reach them, as a deep channel of water ten feet wide 

 intervened between this spot and where I stood up to the waist 

 in water, so I had to satisfy myself with gazing on the eggs. 



My next find worthy of note was a nest of the horned grebe, 

 known in Europe as the Sclavonian grebe. It contained five 

 eggs, and the nest, as usual, was a damp structure of decayed 

 vegetation : the eggs were covered with grass and aquatic 

 plants. 



This species is the only grebe found in Iceland, where it is a 

 common summer resident. It breeds at Rice Lake and St. 

 Clair flats, and other marshy places in Ontario. 



The eared and pied-billed grebe also breed at Long Lake, 

 and on most of the lakes and sloughs in Manitoba. 



All the grebes are expert divers and swimmers ; they sink 

 below the surface of the water almost without making a ripple. 

 They use their wings under water, and when chased in a boat 

 they at once sink, and when next they appear they are far 

 ofl". At the flash of a gun they immediately disappear under 



