1923] GROMME, COLLECTING FOR SCHOOL LOAN GROUPS 11 



natural position, and at the same time one which would bring out ana- 

 tomical characteristics common to the subject at hand. Figure 

 4 shows a brood of young American Bitterns. 



When the waters of the bay were not too rough, our regular daily 

 trips to Little Tail were made via rowboat propelled with a detachable 

 motor. On these trips across we often passed within a few yards of 

 picturesque Black-crowned Night Herons as they gracefully balanced 

 themselves on the stakes driven for the nets of the commercial fisher- 

 men. These birds would perch for hours at a time, and now and then 

 swoop down to the water and clumsily fly back up to the perch and we 

 wondered at the time if this awkward action was an attempt at catch- 

 ing fish. When closely approaching our landing place, we were usu- 

 ally greeted by the surprised squawk of a Great Blue Heron as clumsily 

 and with danghng legs he would flop out of the bullrushes and away 

 from his favorite fishing place. 



On one occasion, while waiting for the water to calm sufficiently to 

 allow a return to the mainland, we decided to wade across the "slough," 

 a cut off of shallow water about one hundred feet wide which joins the 

 bay on either side, and in reality makes an island of Little Tail when 

 the water is slightly higher than normal. While wading across we 

 were surprised by a splash ahead of us, but thought it nothing un- 

 usual, as at this time of the year these waters are literally alive with 

 carp, but one little peep which sounded to us much like a duckling, 

 betrayed the presence of a brood of young mallards, and the adult, 

 when discovered, flew around, frantically quacking and warning the 

 brood to cover. After about two hours of searching under, and around 

 every weed, we succeeded in finding only four of them. When under 

 water and among the weeds with only the bill protruding above, their 

 color gives them the appearance of anything but a duckling, and only 

 an exhaustive search will reveal them. It was getting dark, making 

 further search useless, so we returned to camp for the night. 



Each slough harbored several pairs of Pied-billed Grebe, or "Hell 

 Divers," and we found many of their nests containing eggs that were 

 heavily incubated. We had planned on taking a group of them when 

 they hatched. The fact that every nest found was built in a more or 

 less exposed place, resulted in their being destroyed by the high water 

 driven in by a terrific northeast wind. All nests under observation 

 were lifted bodily from their attachments and dashed to pieces on 

 shore, and not until we were ready to leave had they begun their sec- 

 ond settings, the hatching of which would have been too late for us. 



Our work in the thickets was hampered considerably by the mos- 



