VoL i9i9 XVI ] DuBois, Nesting of the Horned Grebe. 171 



June 5 (3); June 7 (4); June 9 (5); June 12 (6); June 13 (6).- 

 Whenever I appeared at the edge of the slough, it was the custom 

 of the two Grebes to float about upon the area of open water with 

 an air of supreme unconcern. They busied themselves constantly 

 with their toilets, preening the feathers of all parts of their bodies 

 and very frequently tipping or rolling themselves in the water to 

 reach their under parts with their bills. In this half-capsized 

 posture they would float for several seconds, exposing to view the 

 strikingly prominent white area that is normally below the water- 

 line. This preening and floating in different positions, on the 

 part of both birds, proceeded without interruption during my entire 

 stay, each day that I visited them. It became very evident that 

 it was practiced as a ruse to hold the attention of the intruder and 

 thus divert him from their nest. 



On the morning of June 12, a camera was taken to the nest-site 

 with the purpose of making photographs of the nest and eggs. On 

 the land to the south, a homesteader with eight horses to his plow, 

 was turning over the virgin sod. His furrows ended at the edge 

 of the slough southwest from the nesting site of the Grebes. 

 Upon wading to the nest I found the six eggs shielded on the south- 

 west side, by a partial covering of vegetation which had been 

 pulled up on that side only. The general character of the 

 country and location of the nest are shown in the photograph 

 on Plate VIII. After making a photograph, and remaining for a 

 time near the nest to observe the parent birds, I left the tripod 

 and camera in position and went away. The female was contin- 

 ually gaining either confidence or bravery and had been swimming 

 about in an agitated manner, not far from me, as I stood quietly 

 by the camera. Before I had gotten out of sight of the nest I saw 

 her go to it and change the covering or shielding material to its 

 opposite edge, thus sheltering the eggs from the too inquisitive 

 gaze of the camera's eye. When I returned from the cabin the 

 bird was on the nest, incubating. She took to the water as I 

 came up, but continued to swim back and forth among the scant, 

 neighboring tufts of marsh grass. As I stood very quietly for 

 some time behind the camera her boldness gradually increased, 

 until at length I was able to photograph her near the nest, with 

 the aid of only ten feet of rubber tubing attached to the shutter 



