42 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



which may indicate two broods. The question of whether this grebe 

 regularly incubates its eggs or leaves them to be hatched by the 

 warmth of decaying vegetation has provoked considerable discus- 

 sion. Like all the smaller grebes, it frequently covers its eggs, with 

 the soft material of which the nest is composed, when it leaves its 

 nest; but this is not always done and often, when the bird is surprised 

 and forced to leave in a hurry, it does not have time to do so. The 

 pied-billed grebe is seldom seen sitting on its nest. I have exam- 

 ined a great many nests and have attempted to approach cautiously 

 enough to catch a glimpse of the incubating bird, but have never 

 been able to see one on its nest; some other observers have been more 

 fortunate. I believe that it incubates regularly during the greater 

 part of the time. It is one of the shyest of the grebes ; it slips away 

 from its nest on the slightest alarm and keeps out of sight. I have 

 watched for an hour or more within sight of half a dozen nests and 

 not caught a glimpse of a single grebe, although they were un- 

 doubtedly watching me all the time. 



Young. The young are very precocious and leave the nest soon 

 after they are hatched; usually some of the young are swimming 

 about before the last of the eggs have hatched. They are expert 

 swimmers and divers, by instinct, though they can not remain under 

 water more than a few seconds. I have taken recently hatched chicks 

 out of a nest, which were too young to have been taught by their 

 parents, and seen them dive and swim away or hide among the reeds 

 with only their little bills protruding above the surface. Sometimes 

 the parent bird carries them on her back where they cling tenaciously 

 while she dives and brings them up again, none the worse for their 

 ducking. They are truly little "water witches" by inheritance. 

 Rev. Manley B. Townsend writes me that, on June 24, 1910, he saw 

 an adult, with young, chasing a muskrat on the surface of a slough in 

 Nebraska, and raises the question whether these animals, which are 

 generally considered to be strictly vegetarian in their habits, kill 

 young grebes. Undoubtedly many are killed by pickerel or other 

 large fishes and by snapping turtles or large frogs. 



Dr. Arthur A. Allen (1914) has written a very interesting ac- 

 count of his studies into the family affairs of the pied-billed grebe, 

 illustrating it with some remarkable photographs of this shy bird. 

 It is well worth reading or quoting in full, but space will permit only 

 the following extract: 



I was first directed to the spot by a friend who said that "coots" were nest- 

 ing there. I was not a little surprised, therefore, when, after wading for a 

 short distance along the edge of the pond, my attention was attracted by a 

 splash in the water ahead, accompanied by a startled note like the syllable 

 keck, and a few seconds later a grebe bobbed into sight. Instead of imme- 

 diately sinking again, as one learns to expect of a grebe, it rose up on its legs 



