AMONG THE WaATER-FOWL 
surface. Sprinkled about eve:ywhere among them 
were what looked like ay mounds. Upon nearly 
every mound sat a bird. As they saw me, some slid 
off into the water, while others industriously pecked 
at something. “ighen it dawned upon me—lI had 
found a breeding colony of the American Eared 
Grebe. ‘The mounds were nests, and the birds were 
covering their eggs, as is their custom, to hide them 
from an intruder. 
Soon I was right in the midst of the Grebe city. 
But such wet, untidy, uncomfortable homes they 
were, as contrasted with the warm, soft, downy beds 
that Ducks prepare, the substantial structure of the 
Robin, or the elaborately-woven pouch of the 
Oriole! I felt that I was in the slums of bird-dom. 
Here was the problem of the submerged class of 
their society. But who, after all, would be the 
happier should the Grebe ascend from the bottom 
round of the ladder of classification, and, forsaking 
his fish relations and his habits of submergence, make 
a cleaner nest ashore, and waddle awkwardly on 
dry land? 
At my approach the Grebes all left their nests, 
though in some cases the anxious owners lingered 
to cover their treasures until I was almost upon 
them. This enabled me to watch carefully the 
whole process. The bird arose from a prostrate 
position upon the eggs, and assumed one more or 
less upright, squatting upon the rump, to one side 
of the eggs. Reaching over, she seized with the 
bill a piece of floating grass close at hand, and laid 
it across them. Sometimes she would fish out quite 
a bunch at oné haul. If possible shemkepieag at 
4 
