THE LAKE IN THE VALLEY 133 



vanquished bird had left the water and 

 was flying hurriedly away to a neigh- 

 bouring lake with the victorious Grebe 

 chasing it. 



In one corner of the lake there was 

 a small creek, with a quantity of young 

 reeds making their appearance ; it was 

 in this corner that the two Grebes 

 determined to build their nest. It so 

 happened that a pair of Coots also had 

 their home here and the Coot is a bird 

 which likes privacy and when they saw 

 the Grebes appearing here, in their own 

 corner of the lake, they were very much 

 annoyed and determined to put a stop 

 to this trespassing. The Grebes, how- 

 ever, were a match for the Coots and 

 determined to stay, and stay they did. 



I watched them building their nest. 

 The two birds kept diving to the bottom 

 of the lake and bringing up large beak- 

 fuls of the decaying vegetation lying at 

 the bottom ; this was placed on the water 



