OUR COMMON BIRDS. 
THE WATER BIRDS. 
DIVING BIRDS. (ORDER PYGOPODES.) 
GREBES. (FAMILY PODICIPID.) 
Tuer study of water birds requires special advantages 
and equipments, among which are a suitable location, 
much time, and a gun. Our coasts and shores are be- 
coming so popular as “resorts ” that many of the former 
haunts of waterfowl are now thickly populated, and the 
birds are comparatively rare. Furthermore, the larger 
number of our water birds nest in the far North and 
winter in the South, visiting the Middle States only while 
on their migrations. It is evident, therefore, that if we 
would become familiar with these birds, we must devote 
ourselves especially to their pursuit. 
There are, however, some species, notably those which 
frequent bodies of fresh water and nest in this latitude, 
- Pied-billed Grebe, Which deserve to be ranked among our 
Podilymbus podiceps. commoner birds. Of these, one of the 
ricoh 3 best known, by name at least, is the 
Pied-billed Grebe, whose aquatic powers have given it 
the expressive title of Hell-diver. 
Under favorable conditions this little Grebe may breed 
anywhere from the Argentine Republic to British Amer- 
ica, but in the Middle States it occurs chiefly as a spring 
and fall migrant. When nesting, a quiet, reedy pond or 
lake is chosen for a home, the nest leing made on a_pile 
of decaying vegetation. The eggs, four to eight in num- 
ber, are dull white, more or less stained by the nesting 
material, which the parent bird rarely fails to place over 
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