THe SUBMERGED TENTH 
simply scandalous. Eggs lay rotting in the watery 
streets, in one spot as many as fifteen together, the 
result, probably, either of a storm or a squabble. 
Debris of all sorts was strewn around with utter in- 
difference to the public health. The houses were 
low, untidy affairs, reeking with water and decay, 
huddled together in hopeless confusion. So unstable 
is their foundation that quite a mass of them had 
drifted off in some storm, and were scattered about, 
overgrown with green scum, the eggs washed and 
bleached by the overlapping water. 
Conditions on the “west side’ were hardly 
better. The congestion was even worse. Nests in 
close contact formed a considerable area, extending 
in through the sparse grass to some more open water. 
It seems to me that the nests in these Grebe cities 
are smaller and more slovenly built than where a 
pair build a solitary nest. The wonder is how 
such flimsy affairs can keep the eggs and the in- 
cubating birds above water. The husband evi- 
dently has to lead a street life, with little to occupy 
him Sexcept to! pick’ up food, and, receive the 
youngsters, which hatch one by one, and swim off 
as soon as they are born. Perhaps he may antici- 
pate the mother’s task, and ride the little waits 
around on his back. 
When at last we retired with the boat, the 
Grebes swam back. Some resumed incubation, 
while others in parties promenaded up and down 
« Broadway,” in some cases taking their children, 
that had been hiding away in the grass, out for a 
ride. It was an odd sight to see the crop of little 
heads sticking out from under the parent’s wing. 
11 
