Tur SUBMERGED TENTH 
open lake which was frequented by a pair of 
Horned Grebes, I was able to trace to their author- 
ship certain loud cries of whose origin I had been 
uncertain. [he sounds began as a quick chatter, 
ending with several prolonged notes that I can only 
describe as yells. They seemed to keep up this 
noise all night, for I often lay awake listening to it, 
not disturbed, but thoroughly enjoying it, thinking 
how fortunate I was to be living in such good com- 
pany! By day, when the water was pada I could 
see flocks of Grebes out on the larger lake near by, 
and hear from them the same or similar quaverings. 
First one would cry out, then another would take 
up the strain, and still others, until there was noise 
enough for the most ardent lover of bird-choruses. 
mn) mo)less;speculiar are wthe- cries: of the big 
Western Grebe, which I heard on all sides as I 
waded about through their colony in the canes. 
They are utterly different from the notes just de- 
scribed—a shrill, grating trill, not nearly so loud, 
with a eaerallic spoils. allan one ‘keyslike: an 
‘<anvil chorus,” or even the tinkle of a small alarm 
clock. 
My experiences with.Grebes in the East have 
been of a very different order trom those of the 
prairie sloughs of the West. Here I have known 
them largely as migrants, or winterers on our bleak 
coast. The exception to this was a delightful 
sojourn among the Horned Grebes in their summer 
haunts on the Magdalen Islands, in the ponds near 
“East Point’? which Audubon refers to in his 
33 
