Song Birds and Water Fowl 
interesting pied-billed grebe, whose nest is one 
of the curiosities of bird-architecture, its foun- 
dations laid, not in a tree, nor on the ground, 
but in shallow water, in the form of a heap of 
matted material, which, as it emerges above the 
liquid, is hollowed out and finished off with a 
neatly rounded edge—almost a floating island- 
home for the five or six chicks that soon appear. 
The grebe’s facility for instantly darting under 
water and remaining there a long time has given 
to it the more expressive than elegant sodri- 
guet of ‘* Hell-diver.’’ 
But the largest and handsomest specimen 
among diving birds is the common loon, or 
great northern diver, breeding farther north, 
but in winter found throughout the United 
States. This is of a rich black color, with 
numerous curious white spots, and partly 
iridescent violet and green. I will add only 
one more name to this catalogue—that of the 
murre, one species of which comes down to 
our latitude in winter. Multitudes of them 
gather in their breeding-places on rocky isl- 
ands, and they are called ‘‘egg-birds’’ for 
the reason that the eggs are so abundant as to 
be of great value, and are found lying thickly 
together, with little or no pretence of a nest. 
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