396 General Notes. LJuly 



posterior portion of the body including the feet and legs were at a sharp 

 angle and completely free from the water. AU this time the feet were 

 paddling the air with terrific rapidity, and the bird seemed to have not 

 the shghtest conception that its body was not completely submerged 

 although no effort was made to increase its supposed locomotion by using 

 the wings. 



Thinking that I might catch the bird I made one more step forward at 

 the same time reaching for it with my hands, when it bounded from the 

 water and with much flapping of wings and paddling of feet succeeded in 

 covering the few yards down the ditch to the deep water of the sluice where 

 it immediately dove and disappeared. At no time while making its prog- 

 ress down the ditch did the bird rise high enough for its wing tips and 

 paddling feet to clear the water. 



April 18, 1914, I found a pair of grebes in an absolutely unprotected 

 stretch of water on Darby Creek, Delaware Co., Pa. The creek at this 

 point is some fifteen or twenty feet in width and a low grassy meadow bor- 

 dering it on both sides, and terminating at the water's edge in an abrupt 

 bank some three to foiu* feet in height. A few scattered clumps of alders 

 grew in the water at the foot of the bank and at this season of the year with 

 no leafy vegetation in evidence any hving object, no matter how small, is 

 plainly visible. The birds in question dove immediately upon being ob- 

 served and one was never seen again. The other came to the surface after 

 a few seconds, a considerable distance up the creek, but immediately dove 

 again and disappeared. The bird was sighted regularly every morning 

 following and just as regularly disappeared. On the morning of the 

 twenty-third with the aid of the glass it was observed sitting quietly on the 

 surface of the water about a quarter of a mile up the creek. 



An hour later while again passing this spot I decided to take another 

 look at the bird and a sharp lookout was kept for it, but absolutely no 

 trace of it was found. The surface of the water lay hke a mirror. Walking 

 slowly along the bank I scanned the edges of the stream on both sides, but 

 could see nothing resembling a living object, and I was about to leave the 

 spot when my attention was attracted by an oblong object at the foot of a 

 clump of alders directly opposite, and my first thought was that the object 

 was the carapace of a turtle, but as it was rather early in the season for 

 turtles I trained my glasses upon the object and was amazed to discover 

 that it was the grebe. There at the foot of the alders, stretched full length 

 and flattened out upon the surface of the water in exactly the manner of 

 the Gibbstown bird, its bill pointed directly towards me, and although 

 no movement of the head was in evidence it was plain to be seen that the 

 bird was watching my every movement. 



I now called the attention of a friend who was with me to the fact that 

 the object before us was the bird for which we had been searching, and 

 although he could see the oblong object plainly enough, he could not 

 outline the bird. I took another step towards the edge of the bank and as 

 I did so there departed from the sides of the bird those same small circular 



