BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 87 
to support it. It is fastened securely, and usually rises several inches 
above the surface of the water. 
Eggs: 5 to 10; soiled greenish white. Size 1.70 X 1.18. 
THis, the most abundant of the grebes, is the one 
usually shot for its plumage. It breeds commonly in 
Los Angeles County, California, and about San Fran- 
cisco Bay. Its common names express well its mar- 
vellous powers of diving and remaining for a long time 
under water, where it swims easily and rapidly with just 
the tip of its bill exposed. On land it is, like all grebes, 
awkward and helpless, and, as one author says, looks 
more like a tiny kangaroo than a bird. Possibly on 
account ‘of its helplessness when on the nest, it has 
formed the habit of covering the eggs with decaying 
vegetation during the daytime and leaving them to be 
cherished by the artificial heat, and of returning to brood 
them during the night. Certainly these little Grebes are 
never found on their nests during sunny days, and in 
California June days are always sunny. In Oregon, on 
dark cold days, they are close sitters, and it is an odd 
sight to see them jump into the water at any distance 
and disappear with scarcely a ripple. They breed 
abundantly throughout California in the more sheltered 
ponds and inland lakes, requiring only that there shall 
be tule, rushes, or flags to form a platform for the slimy 
structure called a nest. The young Grebes attempt to 
dive as soon as hatched, but rarely succeed in submerg- 
ing their entire bodies at the first trial ; and their plumage, 
like that of the adults, seems to be waterproof, for never 
a wet feather do they show on emerging. The Pied- 
billed Grebe is a much shyer bird than either the West- 
