THE HORNED GREBE 7 



make a move he was gone, and two or three times the 

 other boys had the same experience. It was a most ex- 

 citing chase, and of course we felt sure that if we per- 

 sisted long enough we would be able to catch the poor 

 bird. Finally the bird became too wary to come up and 

 swim on the surface. Instead he would merely stick his 

 bill out of the water so that he could breathe and there he 

 would remain until some one spied him and threw at the 

 beak. Finally we no longer attempted to throw, but en- 

 deavored to find his bill sticking out of the water and slip 

 up to it quietly in the vain hope that the bird could not 

 see with his eyes under water. It was very interesting 

 to see how wary this bird finally became. He would 

 stick his bill out of the water for a few moments and then 

 without making the least ripple, would quietly sink be- 

 neath the surface and dive away to another place perhaps 

 fifty or a hundred feet away, when just as noiselessly he 

 would poke his beak above the water again. Altho we 

 started the chase before nine o'clock, it was nearly noon be- 

 fore we finally gave up and started for home. We left be- 

 cause we could not find our bird any longer. I thought he 

 had been under water till he had drowned, but when we 

 were on our horses ready to start we looked back and 

 there was our bird swimming about as tho nothing had 

 happened. 



When we reached home we had much to tell father and 

 mother and were eager to know more of this bird. Father 

 said that when a man attempts to shoot one of these birds, 

 they often hit the place where it had been, but the bird sees 

 the flash and manages to get under the water before the 

 shot reaches him and for this reason they are the hardest 

 of all swimmers to shoot. Of course this is not true with 



