THE PIED-BILLED GREBE. 633 
“The little floating island of decaying vegetation held together by mud 
and moss, which constitutes the nest of this species, is a veritable ornithological 
curiosity. Imagine a “pancake” of what appears to be mud, measuring twelve 
or fifteen inches in diameter, and rising two or three inches above the water, 
which may be from one to two feet in depth; anchor it to the bottom with a 
few concealed blades of ‘‘saw-grass,” in a little open bay, leaving its circuni- 
ference entirely free; remove a mass of wet muck from its rounded top, and 
you expose seven or eight soiled brownish-white eggs, resting in a depression 
ie 
Taken on the Licking Reservoir. rhoto by the Author. 
IN THE HAUNTS OF THE GREBE. 
the bottom of which is less than an inch from the water; the whole mass is 
constantly damp. ‘his is the nest of the Dabchick, who is out foraging in 
the Marsh, or perhaps is anxiously watching us from some safe cover near by. 
“The anchoring blades of coarse saw-grass or flags, being always longer 
than is necessary to reach the bottom, permit of considerable lateral and ver- 
tical movement of the nest, and so effectually provide against drowning of 
the eggs by any ordinary rise of the water level, such as frequently occurs dur- 
ing the prevalence of strong easterly winds on the lake. A small bunch of 
saw-grass already growing in a suitable situation is evidently selected as a 
nucleus for the nest, and the tops bent so as to form a part of it. 
