AMONG THE WaTeR-FowL 
This time I was determined not to be thwarted. So, 
when my companion appeared, we drove back, 
hitched the bow of a canoe to the back of the w agon 
and, after dragging it more than a mile over rough, 
wet ground, I managed to get afloat in it with camera 
and all needed apparatus. As I came within sight 
of the Grebes, they sank like stones, a submerged 
company indeed, for I saw them no more, save for 
an occasional head thrust momentarily out of the 
water to reconnoitre. One of them I saw swim 
under the boat, only a little way below the surface. 
It used wings and feet as oars, and was indeed flying 
through the water. But what of the nests? GE 
one could I find, though I explored the edges of the 
open water all aroma and penetrated into elie grass 
in every direction. No photographs of Grebe 
colonies was it that season my lot to take. 
But the time came when this ambition was grati- 
fied. Late last June I was encamped, with three 
companions, upon the timbered shore of another large 
Dakota lake. One morning, we were poling a 
heavy boat, the only one available, through a maze 
of grass growing out of four feet of water, far 
out from shore. Another push, and we glided to 
a partial opening, where a wonderful sight greeted 
us. We-had run -with (our ‘beat almost into a 
large colony of American Eared» ‘Grebes, (eur 
prising the ‘birds right upon their nests. Perhaps 
they had heard ohana to arouse their suspicions, for 
they were in the act of covering their eggs. But no 
sooner did they see our heads over the grass than 
there was a general plunge, which sounded like the 
beating of a rain-squall as it first strikes a body of 
8 
