THE DABCHICK. 173 



Spreading considerably apart, they allow themselves plenty 

 of room. How the ripples, started by their breasts, enlarge 

 like arcs of circles on the glassy surface, and intersecting 

 each other, move on increasingly to the shore. In quick suc- 

 cession they glide softly under the water, and remain for 

 some time, no doubt taking their food of small fishes and 

 aquatic grasses. Nothing can exceed the ease and graceful- 

 ness with which they dive, so tipping under the water as 

 barely to ruffle the mirror-like surface. Presently they 

 reappear, one after another, shaking their heads, and look- 

 ing this way and that as if to make sure of their safety, 

 but still swimming well out of the water. Gliding along 

 much more rapidly than Ducks, they describe their elegant 

 -curves for a few seconds, and then all disappear again. 

 What a happy family they are! Should they take alarm, 

 using their wings to aid in swimming, they will literally 

 fly under water, coming up a long distance away, and so 

 contracting their bodies in respiration, and thus lessening 

 their specific gravity, as barely to protrude the head or bill 

 on coming up to breathe, and probably in a few minutes 

 will all entirely disappear among the sedges and cat-tails. 

 Though easily shot when not on the lookout, if once sus- 

 picious of danger it is almost impossible to capture them, 

 since they will dive between the flash of the gun and the 

 arrival of the charge. 



How does any bird dare to set out on the immense flights 

 of migration with such tiny wings! They might serve the 

 same purpose as the fins of a fish, but who would imagine 

 them at all sufficient for flight! Indeed, the wing of the 

 Grebe is a compromise between a wing and a fin, it being 

 the smallest wing possible for flight to a bird of its size 

 and what a mere apology for a tail is that little tuft 

 of hair a common mark of all the Grebes. The 



