32 BIRDS 



Alcidae, which numbers thirty species, all found in the 

 Northern Hemisphere, most of them on the Pacific Coast. 

 They pass most of their lives on the open sea. They nest 

 in colonies, vast numbers frequenting cliffs. On land they 

 are slow and awkward, but are good fliers, swimmers, and 

 divers. In pursuing fish beneath the water they use wings 

 as well as feet. Many of these lay but one egg. 



HORNED GREBE 



The Horned Grebe, often called Hell Diver, Die-dap- 

 per, or Water Witch, is frequently mistaken for the pied- 

 billed grebe. A bird of central North America, occurring 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it is a common migrant 

 in the Great Lakes region. It nests in northern Minnesota 

 and in the lagoons of Manitoba and Alberta, and is found 

 in the Devil's Lake region of North Dakota. 



In 1900, while camping at Sweetwater Lake, North 

 Dakota, I found holboells, pied-billed, and horned grebes 

 inhabiting the grassy sloughs along low prairies. In the 

 regions about the shores of the lakes one thousand western 

 grebes were breeding in company with five hundred eared 

 grebes. In general appearance and size horned and eared 

 grebes are quite similar, the eared being the western form. 

 While wading about among these floating nests of the 

 grebes, the birds would dive, striking against my boots as 

 they moved about beneath the water. 



The notes of the grebes are shrill and penetrating, 

 reminding one of the constant trilling of frogs and toads 

 in the marshes in early spring. When hundreds of grebes 



