4 WATER-BIRDS IN THEIR HOMES. 



Would you like ' to see" her at home ? Then early some 

 summer morning, if you live near a meadow stream that 

 wanders off behind beds of bulrushes and thickets of alders, 

 and widens out between broad, grassy meadows, take a little 

 voyage in your boat up the stream, paddling slowly and 

 quietly. There are carpets of lily leaves, both the round pad 

 of the white water-lily, dark green above and red beneath, 

 and the long, lighter green leaves of the yellow "cow-lily," or 

 spatterdock; by the water's edge there are scattered spears 

 of arrow-head with its white blossoms and clumps of tall 

 pontederia, which in Maine we call both " pickerel-weed " and 

 "moose-ear," the latter name being given because its long, 

 pointed leaves look like the ears of the moose. Its blue spikes 

 of gold-spotted flowers draw the insects to it, and the ducks 

 love to hide in the thick cover of its leaves. 



Perhaps from behind the ranks of tall moose-ear that stand 

 up off the end of yonder point our grebe may come swimming 

 out. Perhaps we may see her settle slowly into the water 

 among that patch of floating water-target that spreads its little 

 oval pads like a carpet. Perhaps she may be up the side-run, 

 whose course is marked by a line of the tall red thorough wort, 

 and by waving ribbons of cat-tail leaves. 



Watching motionless, we may sometime see her glide out 

 from such a place as this, floating like a little duck, for which 

 you would at first mistake her. She picks up an insect from 

 the water, or rises to snatch one from the stalk of some water- 

 plant. Many a gauze-winged blue and green dragon-fly goes 

 to satisfy her appetite. For insects form by far the larger 

 portion of her diet, though she sometimes eats fish. Indeed, 

 in the West, the grebes are often found in alkaline ponds 

 where no fish can live. But why does the grebe swallow her 

 own feathers ? The gizzard of the grebe as commonly con- 



